An Immunodominant Region in HPV16.L1 Identified by T Cell Responses in Patients with Cervical Dysplasias

Abstract

Human papillomaviruses are truly epitheliotropic and give rise to skin and mucosal. lesions. How the host controls and eliminates HPV infections at these surfaces remains largely unknown. In the genital. tract HPV has been shown to cause genital. warts, cervical. dysplasias and carcinomas of the cervix. Most cases of genital. warts and early lesions of cervical. dysplasias will spontaneously regress if left untreated suggesting that the host mounts a protective response against the virus. High grade dysplasias and tumours appear not to be controlled despite the fact that high risk HPV types (16,18,31, 33 etc.) are found in both situations. The role of immune mechanisms in HPV infections can now be examined where previously it was impossible through the development of new assay techniques. This has come about following the availability of good antigen sources, namely HPV capsids for B cell (serology) studies and recombinant HPV proteins and synthetic peptides for T cell work. Our present study looks for proliferative T cell responses to HPV16.L1 in patients with cervical. dysplasias by generating short term T cell lines from their peripheral. blood in vitro and using these to map immunodominant T cell epitopes on the molecule with overlapping synthetic peptides.