PREVALENCE OF ANTIBODIES TO HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) TYPE-16 VIRUS-LIKE PARTICLES IN RELATION TO CERVICAL HPV INFECTION AMONG COLLEGE-WOMEN

A human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) virus-like particle (VLP)-base d enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure serum antibody to capsid proteins in 376 sexually active college women who w ere also screened for the presence of genital HPVs by PCR and intervie wed for demographic and behavioral risk factors for HPV infection, The seroprevalence was 46% in women with HPV-16 DNA in the genital tract, The corresponding values for women who harbored other HPV types or no I-IPV in the genital tract were 30 and 19%, respectively (HPV-16 grou p versus no-HPV group; odds ratio [OR], 3.7; 95% confidence interval [ CI], 1.5 to 8.9), The antibody response was significantly higher among women with a high viral load than among those with a low viral load ( median optical density value, 0.838 versus 0.137, P = 0.009), Comparab le levels of seroreactivity were observed among women infected with HP V types distantly or closely related genetically to HPV-16. Seroreacti vity was significantly associated with an age of 25 to 30 years (OR, 2 .3; 95% CI, 1.2 to 4.4), three or more lifetime sexual partners (OR, 2 .9; 95% CI, 1.1 to 10), and history of a sexually transmitted disease other than BPV (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.5 to 6.3), The percent seropositivi ty increased linearly with number of lifetime sexual partners until re aching a plateau at 35% for women with more than six partners (chi for linear trend, P < 0.001), The low sensitivity of HPV-16 VLP-based ELI SA may limit the usefulness of the assay as a diagnostic test for HPV- 16 infection. However, the assay appears to have adequate specificity and should be useful as an epidemiological marker of HPV-16 infection and sexual behavior.