Contraceptive research has entered the new age of vaccines. Realistic
prospects exist for the development of an entirely new battery of
vaccines for use in human and veterinary medicine. Among them may be
anti-fertility vaccines, based on physiological mechanisms applicable to
either the female or male. This volume is a comprehensive review - a
status report - of the subjects including fundamental work on the search
for useful epitopes and ranging to applied vaccinology. One vaccine to
prevent pregnancy, for use by women, has already been studied
extensively. G.P. Talwar, the volume's editor and his colleagues in New
Oelhi, India, published in 1976 a landmark series of papers describing
the immunological properties of a preparation consisting of the
alum-precipitated beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)
chemically linked to tetanus toxoid. The principle of enhancing
antigenicity of a self-protein by linkage of the epitope to a carrier
protein was employed and tested clinically. These trials, carried out
under the auspices of the Indian Council for Medical Research, were the
first application of the carrier protein concept for a vaccine for human
use. The encouraging results stimulated a wave of research not only on
the use of hCG-based vaccines, but on other antigens as well.