[Anti-peptide antibodies specifically recognize the L1 protein of human papilloma virus type 31]

Antibodies that specifically recognize the capsid protein (L1) of human papillomavirus (HPV) are an important tool necessary for designing vaccines against HPV infection. In this work, we have predicted and synthesized peptide fragments mimicking B cell epitopes of L1 HPV type 31 (sequences 49-65, 131-145, 172-189, 349-362 and 402-414), and conjugated their to KLH and BSA to generate the L1-31-specific anti-peptide antibodies in mice. Variants of recombinant L1-31, including full-size and mutants with C-terminal single amino acid changes and deletions and full-size L1-16 were produced in the yeast using monitoring with L1 HPV16-specific monoclonal antibody. Testing of anti-peptide antisera in ELISA showed that antibodies to peptides 49-65 and 172-189 were capable to recognize specifically L1-31 protein, but not L1-16 one. Such antibodies may be used for assay of L1-31 production in various expression systems.