
%0 Journal Article
%A Tung, KS 
%A Lou, YH 
%A Luo, AM 
%A Ang, J 
%T Contraceptive vaccine assessment based on a murine ZP3 mini-autoantigen
%J Reproduction, Fertility and Development
%D 1994/06/01
%V 6
%N 3
%P 349-355
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/RD9940349
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/RD9940349 
%X A summary is presented of published and some unpublished observations from studies on the immunological response of mice to a 13-mer peptide of the murine ovarian zona pellucida glycoprotein ZP3.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. 
