EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. Infection of the genital tract by human papillomaviruses (HPVs) represents the most common sexually transmitted disease, resulting in squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) that can progress to cancer. Our continued overall goal is to understand the antibody responses to HPVs to better understand the natural history of infection and to aid in the design and evaluation of prophylactic vaccines, which are based on using virus-like particles (VLPs) to elicit protective neutralizing antibodies. We have learned a great deal about the response to HPV in naturally infected women.
One aim will be to determine whether the responses seen in vaccinated women are the same both quantitatively and qualitatively. We will follow the serum IgG reponses over time, and characterize the mucosal antibody response. We will determine whether the broad responses seen during natural infection also occur with vaccination. Another important goal will be to understand the antibody response in men. In a preliminary study we have studied a cohort of college men, similar to the women who have been intensively studied. Both the prevalence and titer of HPV 16 antibodies was Iowere in men, and seropositivity correlated better with past infection. It is important to learn more in a longitudinal study since responses may be different in men. Finally we are interested in charactering the epitopes that are recognized during natural and expermintal infection. Our preliminary dtata has found that a complex set of HPV 6 epitopes, largely tpye-specific, but some cross-reactive with HPV 11 are recognized. We would like to determine whether the same epitopes are recognized on other HPV types, both by making mutations in the surface exposed residues of HPV 16, and by transferring the putative epitopes of one type onto the backbone of a closely related, but immunologiclally distinct type. Not only will this information be useful in determining the generality of epitope recognition, but we also predict that we can construct multivalent VLPs that will be useful in comprehensive HPV vaccines. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================
Showing the most recent 10 out of 13 publications
