Preparation and Evaluation of Unimolecular Pentavalent and Hexavalent Antigenic Constructs Targeting Prostate and Breast Cancer:  A Synthetic Route to Anticancer Vaccine Candidates

Several novel, fully synthetic, carbohydrate-based antitumor vaccines have been assembled. Each construct consists of multiple cancer-related antigens displayed on a single polypeptide backbone. Recent advances in synthetic methodology have allowed for the incorporation of a complex oligosaccharide terminating in a sialic acid residue (i.e., GM2) as one of the carbohydrate antigens. Details of the vaccine synthesis as well as the results of preliminary immunological investigations are described herein.