title: Prevalence of serum antibodies to synthetic peptides to HPV16 epitopes among Indian women with cervical neoplasia.
abstract: Serum samples from 38 Indian women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cancer along with 20 control women were analysed for IgG antibodies against a panel of four synthetic peptides derived from early and late gene open reading frames of HPV16. The cervical tissue samples from these patients were also subjected to PCR in order to detect the presence of human papilloma viruses (HPVs) type 6, 11 and 16 DNA, using a set of primers for the E6 open reading frames in order to establish the acquisition of HPV infection. E2, E6 and L1 peptides of HPV16 were found to be highly reactive with the patients' sera, and a significant prevalence of antibodies to E6, E2 and L1 (P < 0.01) was observed among women with CIN, while antibodies to E6 peptide were only significantly elevated (P < 0.01) among women with cervical invasive carcinoma. Furthermore, there was good agreement between the development of the E6 antibody response and the presence of HPV16 E6 DNA among women with CIN and cervical invasive carcinoma as shown by high values of the kappa coefficient (0.7-1.0). The study clearly revealed a strong agreement between two assay methods defining unambiguous immunogenic B-cell epitopes on synthetic peptides to early and late gene open reading frames of HPV16 which could be used in HPV peptide serology. As such, single or combination of peptides in HPV peptide serology can be used as a screening tool to identify HPV-associated cervical lesions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Murthy
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011897:Random Allocation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D010455:Peptides