| abstract |
The invention relates to a polysaccharide-peptide conjugate wherein the polysaccharide is advantageously immunogenic, which comprises a polysaccharide chain composed of repeat units and a plurality of peptide moieties, each moiety containing a cysteine residue and being covalently attached at random along the polysaccharide chain, through an indirect bound involving the thiol group of the cysteine residue and an amino, hydroxyl or carboxyl group of the polysaccharide, said indirect bound being achieved through either a linker or a spacer-linker moiety provided that the spacer entity of the spacer-linker moiety is linked to the amino, hydroxyl or carboxyl group of the polysaccharide. To this end, a useful linker may be e.g., N-(η-maleimidobutyryloxy) succinimide ester. Such a conjugate may typically exhibit a 'Rake' configuration. Conjugation processes are also disclosed. Conjugates of the invention are in particular useful in the vaccinal field to elicit a protective long term immune response against a pathogenic microorganism from which the immunogenic polysaccharide is derived. |