Clinical and immunological responses with Pr- beta-hCG-TT vaccine

Six different batches of Pr-beta-hCG-TT vaccine have been evaluated in 23 women for the antibody response. The anti-sera formed against these conjugates were capable of reacting immunologically with the whole hCG in radioimmunoassays and also neutralized the biological activity of hCG in radioreceptor assays. The antibody titres attained peak levels 4-6 months after the first injection. The peak titres could not be sustained and most of the subjects showed a spiky pattern. One subject was considered as non-respective, two others had fairly low titres. Amongst the conjugates tested, batch 108 with SPLPS (sodium pthalate denatured with lipo-polysaccharides from S. entritides) seemed more promising, but the addition of the adjuvant was found to be pyrogenic and unlikely to be accepted clinically.