Synthetic subunit vaccines

Brynestad K, et al. Influence of peptide acylation, liposome incorporation, and synthetic immunomodulators on the immunogenicity of a 1-23 peptide of glycoprotein D of herpes simplex virus implications for subunit vaccines. J Virol 1990 64 680. 

Research on an hCG vaccine has been conducted over the past 15 years. WHO has conducted a phase I clinical study in AustraUa, using a vaccine based on a synthetic C-terminal peptide (109—141) of P-hCG conjugated to Diptheria Toxoid (CTP-DT), that showed potentially effective contraceptive levels of antibodies were produced in vaccinated women without any adverse side effects. Phase II clinical studies are under consideration to determine if the immune response, raised to its prototype anti-hCG vaccine, is capable of preventing pregnancy in fertile women volunteers (115). While research on the C-terminal peptide from the P-subunit of hCG has been carried out under the auspices of WHO, research supported by the Population Council and the National Institutes of Health has involved two alternative vaccine candidates (109,116,118). 

---