Preparation and Cryo-EM Structure Determination of Human Papillomavirus 16 Pseudovirion Derived from Suspension-adapted HEK293Cells

: The goals of this study were to establish a scalable production method to prepare human papillomavirus(HPV)16pseudovirus (PsV) using suspension-adapted HEK-293 FT cells and to improve the purification efficiency of HPV PsV. Furthermore, we aimed to solve the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of HPV16 PsV. The suspension f HEK-293 FT cells were generated from adherent cells by a stepwise decrease in serum content and the addition of an anti-clumping agent during culturing. The resultant HEK-293 FT suspension cells were transfected with an L1/L2 expression vector and pN31-EGFP plasmid to generate HPV16 PsV in the Wave Bioreactor. Following cell lysis,HPV16 PsV was purified by sucrose density gradient and subsequent CsCl iso-density gradient ultra-centrifugation The final titer of HPV16 PsV was 8.2 × 10(5) TCID(50)/μL. Purified HPV16 PsV was comfirmed to as contain L1 and L2protein by western blotting, and the L1 concentration was determined to be 156.0 μg/mL by quantitative ELISA. Finally, a FEI Tecnai G2F30 electron microscope and AUTO3 DEM were used to solve the cryoEM structure of HPV16 PsV at a resolution of 14 A.The structure shows that HPV16 PsV exists as a T=7dicosahedral lattice, with a diameter of 600 A. These results will be beneficial for neutralization assays and for anti-sera for HPV vaccines, the high-resolution structure determination of HPV16 PsV, and the investigation of interactions between HPV L1 and L2.