| abstract |
(57) Summary Chimeric peptide epitopes can serve as effective immunogens for hormones and other small peptides or proteins. Thus, an immunogenic peptide is synthesized from a hybrid Th epitope and synthesized with an autoantigenic peptide sequence fused with or without end-to-end spacer peptide interconnections. The peptide sequence, which may be from gonadotropin-releasing hormone, is linked to an immunogenic peptide sequence selected from the hybrid Th epitope of the measles virus protein F, tetanus toxin or malaria protein CSP. The composition of the chimeric immunogen is found to be effective in eliciting high and specific anti-GnRH antibody titers. |