title: Detection of antibodies to a linear epitope on the major coat protein (L1) of human papillomavirus type-16 (HPV-16) in sera from patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and children.
abstract: Antibodies to the major (L1) coat protein of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) in sera from patients with cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) have been investigated by means of recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides. When L1-HPV-16 fusion proteins were used in immunoblot assays, no antibody reactivity was found in sera from 52 patients with CIN or from 21 unrelated children. Amino-acid sequence analyses indicated that L1-HPV-16 amino acids 473 to 492 may contain an HPV-16 type-restricted epitope since the greatest diversity occurs in this region. In the ELISA, seropositivity to peptides 473 to 492 was more common among CIN patients whose biopsies contained HPV-16 DNA (91%, 21 of 23) than among their children (24%, 5 of 21; p less than 0.001) or other CIN patients with HPV-16 DNA-negative biopsies (66%, 19 of 29; p less than 0.05), but was unrelated to the severity of the CIN lesion. Antibodies to L1-HPV-16 peptide 473 to 492 among seropositive CIN patients cross-reacted with the analogous L1-HPV-33, but not with the L1-HPV-6b peptide, and were predominantly IgM. In contrast, antibodies which recognized a less variable region of L1-HPV-16 (amino acids 279 to 293) showed no association with HPV-16 DNA status. Seropositivity to the L1-HPV-6b (amino acids 473-492) was less frequent (33%) among CIN patients and unassociated with HPV-16 DNA status (p greater than 0.1); however 51% (37 of 72) of patients with genital warts had antibodies to this peptide.
authors.affiliation: Richard Dimbleby Laboratory of Cancer Virology, Rayne Institute, St Thomas's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cason
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kambo
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: McCance
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology; D002213:Capsid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000276:immunology; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral; D010455:Peptides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C063317:L1 protein, Human papillomavirus type 16