Scanning the structure and antigenicity of HPV-16 E6 and E7 oncoproteins using antipeptide antibodies.

The structure and antigenicity of the HPV-16 E6 and E7 oncoproteins was studied using a set of antisera against overlapping synthetic peptides. We report that antigenic, mobile regions of the native proteins, as defined by reactivity with antipepide antisera, occur at the N-termini of both E6 and E7 proteins, corresponding to regions of known or suspected protein-protein interactions. The putative zinc finger domains were consistently non-reactive, despite computer predictions of relatively high antigenicity, suggesting that the proposed zinc finger regions are held in stable secondary structures that the peptides were not able to mimic