Demonstration of evolutionary differences between conserved antigenic epitopes in the minor nucleocapsid protein of human papillomavirus types 6b, 16 and 18. |
| |
Authors: | M Lehtinen P Parkkonen J Niemel? J Paavonen |
| |
Institution: | Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland. |
| |
Abstract: | We studied human papillomavirus (HPV) minor nucleocapsid protein (L2) by epitope scanning. Conserved antigenic epitopes identified by rabbit antiserum to bovine papillomavirus (BPV) were revealed in HPV-6b (amino acids, aa, 196-205); HPV-16 (aa:s 376-85) and HPV-18 (aa:s 221-230). L2 proteins. The first two epitopes were situated in hydrophilic regions of the proteins. Aligning the aa-sequences that corresponded to the epitopes with the total L2 sequences of BPV and HPV1a revealed consensus motifs between BPV, HPV1a and the reactive HPV type. In the non-reactive types amino acid alterations were noted. Mismatch between HPV1a sequences and the corresponding HPV-6b and HPV-16, HPV-6b and HPV-18, and HPV-16 and HPV-18 sequences suggests that the alterations may have evolved to facilitate immune surveillance of the genital HPV types. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|