SPECIFIC SEROLOGICAL TESTINGS WITH A NOVE L AUTHENTIC HPV ANTIGEN (VIRUS-LIKE PARTICLES) FOR HPV-6 ANTIBODIES IN GYNECOLOGIC PATIENT GROUPS

Objective: A serological assay for genital HPV infection whould provid e important additional information to HPV DNA diagnostic methods, sinc e it would evaluate prior exposure to the viruses, detect significant systemic immunologic response to virus infection, and could be perform ed in most clinical laboratories. Methods: Serum samples from three gr oups of patients attending a gynecology clinic were analysed by direct ELISA for specific IgG-antibodies to baculovirus-expressed HPV-6- and BPV-1-L1-VLPs. Results: Positive IgG reactivity to HPV-6-L1-VLPs were 4/72 (6 %) in a control group, 28/73 (38 %) in a condyloma group and 17/62 (17 %) in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia patients. Individua l IgG ELISA values of condyloma and CM patients for HPV-6-L1-VLPs demo nstrated no correlation to results with BPV-1-L1-VLPs. Conclusions: Th ese data show that HPV-6-L1-VLPs are effective antigens for serologica l studies and can detect species specific antibodies with important im plications for diagnosis, epidemiology, insites to natural course of d isease, prognosis and evaluation of vaccination.