Two L1-peptides are excellent tools for serological detection of HPV-associated cervical carcinoma lesions

Abstract A persistent high risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection causes cervical intraepithelial lesions and cervical carcinoma. There is evidence that detecting anti-L1 antibodies could be successfully used for discriminating between cervical lesion patients and women having normal cytology. It was found that peptides 18283 ( 55 PNNNKILVPKVSGLQYRVFR 74 ) and 18294 ( 284 LYIKGSGSTANLASSNYFPT 300 ) from the L1-surface exposed regions were specifically recognised by antibodies from the cervical lesion patient sera. These peptides were tested against 165 womens’ normal cytology sera and 148 cervical lesion or cervical cancer patients’ sera. Less than 3.6% of women’s normal cytology sera recognised peptides 18283 or 18294; on the contrary, 91% to 96% of the cervical lesion (CIN I to CIN III) or cervical cancer patient sera recognised peptides 18283 and 18294. These data show that anti-peptide 18283 and 18294 antibodies in the patients’ sera are strongly associated with the presence of HR-HPV associated cervical lesions, showing 92–97% sensitivity and 89–95% specificity in recognising precancerous and cervical cancer patients. These two peptides could be excellent tools for use in large-scale serological screening of women populations at risk of developing cervical carcinoma.