Highly immunogenic and fully synthetic peptide-carrier constructs targetting GnRH

To use peptides as synthetic vaccines, they have to be coupled to a carrier protein to make them more immunogenic. Coupling efficiency between a carri er protein and a peptide, however, is difficult to control with respect to loading density of the peptide, This makes these carrier proteins poorly su itable for practicle use. Attempts have been reported to find carrier molec ules or delivery systems which allow easy coupling or incorporation of pept ides, reproducible loading densities and well defined products. We compared several promising constructs or delivery systems by immunization of male p igs using a tandem GnRH peptide as a branched polylysine construct, a lipo- thioester, a lipo-amide or a KLH conjugate in CFA, and the lipoamide peptid e in an immuno-stimulating complex (ISCOM). We found the lipo-thioester and the branched polylysine constructs to be the most effective carrier molecu les for the induction of antibodies against GnRH and immunocastration of pi gs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science I;td. All rights reserved.