
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tung, KS 
A1  - Lou, YH 
A1  - Luo, AM 
A1  - Ang, J 
T1  - Contraceptive vaccine assessment based on a murine ZP3 mini-autoantigen
JF  - Reproduction, Fertility and Development
JO  - Reprod. Fertil. Dev.
Y1  - 1994
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
SP  - 349
EP  - 355
KW  - 
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/RD9940349 
N2  - A summary is presented of published and some unpublished observations from studies on the immunological response of mice to a 13-mer peptide of the murine ovarian zona pellucida glycoprotein ZP3. The findings have the following implications for the design of immunocontraceptive vaccines. To be reversible, a ZP3 vaccine must not contain pathogenic T cell epitopes of ZP3, but contraception without autoimmune oophoritis may be feasible. The immune response to the ZP3 mini-autoantigen is highly variable among inbred mouse strains, suggesting that a single oophoritogenic peptide would not achieve irreversible contraception in an outbred population. The discovery of antigen mimicry at the level of T cell peptide has thrown doubt on the validity of current strategy in detecting relevant self-antigens that might cross react with vaccine immunogens and on the feasibility of fully predicting the cross-reactive autoimmunogenic potential of a peptide or polypeptide vaccine antigen. Autoantibodies directed against epitopes outside the ZP3 mini-autoantigen, produced by immunization with the pure T cell epitope, react with high affinity, with native zona pellucida, and may be useful in identifying B cell epitopes in ZP3. 
ER  -

