Synthetic Hormone/Growth Factor Subunit Vaccine with Application to Antifertility and Cancer

Historically, vaccines were developed to induce immunological memory prior to pathogen exposure so that the immune system could then prevent infection or ameliorate the effects of the ensuing disease. Vaccines of this type were designed for maximum effect because, typically, more was better, and as long as the immune response was directed at the foreign pathogen, the type of response and specific antigenic targets did not cause concern. Today, scientists and physicians wish to direct the immune system against diseases and conditions that have little or no association with foreign pathogens. There is considerable interest in developing active specific vaccines and immunotherapies against self antigens instead of nonself antigens. Success in these efforts depends both on expression on the target tissue of molecules that have the potential to be recognized as “foreign” by the immune system, and on the scientific community’s ability to discover safe and effective methods for presenting these molecules to the immune system such that antigenic self-tolerance is broken in a controlled and predictable fashion.