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adjuvant

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adjuvant, substance that enhances the effect of a particular medical treatment. Administration of one drug may enhance the effect of another. In anesthesia, for example, sedative drugs are customarily given before an operation to reduce the quantity of anesthetic drug needed. In immunology an adjuvant is a substance that increases the body’s reaction to a foreign substance. The reaction to diphtheria toxoid—modified form of the toxin, or poisonous substance, produced by the organism that causes diphtheria—is increased, for example, if the toxoid is adsorbed (attached) to particles of aluminum hydroxide or aluminum phosphate.

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