Fig. 6. Tumour-associated carbohydrate antigen vaccines.

Vaccines targeting tumour-associated carbohydrates have evolved from unimolecular vaccines comprising single glycans conjugated to a carrier protein (usually keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH)) into more complex multivalent vaccines in which multiple glycans are linked together on a single scaffold. Although glycolipids have been popular targets, some vaccines target mucin-associated glycans. Pharmacophores representing key glycans in each vaccine are shaded in colour. The vaccines depicted include GM2–KLH²¹⁰, a unimolecular pentavalent immunogen²²⁸, MUC1–KLH²¹⁸, sTn–KLH²⁹⁹, MUC1 Tn–KLH²⁴⁸, P10s–PADRE²²⁹ and sLe^a–KLH²⁵⁵. Tn denotes a single O-GalNAc. GalNAc, N-acetylgalactosamine; MUC1, mucin 1; PADRE, pan-HLA DR binding epitope; sLe^a, sialyl Lewis^a; sTn, sialyl-Tn.