Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 9, 1990 TAG: 9007090202
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The vaccine, still in the early stages of development, is being tested on three baboons. If successful, a larger study involving up to 30 of the animals may begin.
"We should know in the next two years whether we have a vaccine that works in a close cousin of the human," said John C. Herr, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at the university's medical school. "The results will tell us whether our vaccine is ready for testing among women, whether we need to further refine the vaccine or shelve it altogether."
"If the thing works as we hope, a person would receive one or several injections to initiate a period of active infertility," Herr said. "And that infertility would last for months, if not years."
The vaccine is not expected to have an impact on a woman's menstrual cycles, but further study will be needed. And although it is not considered permanent, it is not known yet how long the vaccine would be effective before a booster shot would be required.
The vaccine, and others similar to it in development around the world, could have an enormous impact in countries where traditions and cultural barriers discourage other forms of contraception but where population pressures are overwhelming.
"We have chosen to produce a vaccine in a fairly cost-effective way . . . We are hoping that, if workable, it will become part of a global vaccination," Herr said.
Closer to home, it could be useful in the persistent problem of unwanted teen-age pregnancies, particularly among girls who have prescriptions for birth-control pills but forget to take them regularly.
"The worldwide market for a contraceptive vaccine would be immense," said Gerald Zatuchni, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University and editor of a professional journal on contraception.
In the United States alone, where 57 million women are of child-rearing age, birth control pills amount to a $300 million yearly industry, Zatuchni said. Condom sales are near $100 million annually.
The UVa vaccine is designed to prod a woman's immune system to make antibodies to a protein found in human sperm, Herr said. The antibodies, molecules that attack foreign tissue in the body, would block the union of egg and sperm and thus prevent conception.
The concept of a contraceptive vaccine has been around since at least the 1930s, when a patent was awarded for the concept, Herr said. The idea that sperm may be able to induce an immune response goes back to 1906, he said.
But it has only been recently, with the revolution in molecular biology, that researchers have had the tools to identify the correct molecules that led them to the production of prototype vaccines. One is already undergoing human tests on women in Australia. Indian researchers have also made many advances.
"My interest is in population regulation," Herr said. "I now believe with almost fervent zeal that many of the problems we are facing in this society today are the direct result of overpopulation, from the pressures on the people in South America to produce drugs, to the ecological problems we are seeing all over the world."
by CNB