HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Rockefellar's hCG Vaccine Program

Study Abstract

We report here the use of an alternative carrier diphtheria toxoid (DT) in human subjects to overcome antigen-specific unresponsiveness upon immunization with a hapten/ligand-carrier conjugate. In the phase I clinical trial of a birth control vaccine using gonadotrophin subunits linked to tetanus toxoid, some of the subjects failed to evoke a booster antibody response to human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). Presentation of the ligand on DT instead in subsequent immunizations restored anti-hCG response.

Study Information

Gaur A, Arunan K, Singh O, Talwar GP.
Bypass by an alternate 'carrier' of acquired unresponsiveness to hCG upon repeated immunization with tetanus-conjugated vaccine.
Int Immunol.
1990 September
National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India and Stanford University Medical School.