RESUMO
BACKGROUND: While the cervical mucosal immune response to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is believed to be central to viral clearance, it is not well characterized. We performed this analysis to determine correlates of HPV-16-specific mucosal antibody response in women at high risk for infection with HPV. METHODS: Cervical mucosal and serum samples were obtained from participants in a case control study that measured demographic risk factors of cervical disease and HPV infection. An HPV-16 L1-virus-like particle ELISA was used to detect HPV-16-specific IgA and IgG. Antibody level results were correlated with demographic characteristics, sexual history, cervical disease, and HPV detection. RESULTS: Cervical anti-HPV-16 IgA and IgG inversely correlated with HPV DNA, HPV-16 DNA, and cervical disease. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that mucosal antibodies may protect against HPV infection and cervical disease. However, additional longitudinal studies evaluating serum and mucosal antibody correlates of incident, persistent, and clearing HPV infection are needed. In addition, standardization of mucosal sample collection and testing methods are required.
Assuntos
Anticorpos Antivirais/imunologia , Papillomavirus Humano 16/imunologia , Infecções por Papillomavirus/imunologia , Displasia do Colo do Útero/virologia , Neoplasias do Colo do Útero/virologia , Adolescente , Adulto , Anticorpos Antivirais/biossíntese , Estudos de Casos e Controles , DNA Viral/análise , Ensaio de Imunoadsorção Enzimática , Feminino , Papillomavirus Humano 16/genética , Humanos , Imunoglobulina A/biossíntese , Imunoglobulina A/imunologia , Imunoglobulina G/biossíntese , Imunoglobulina G/imunologia , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Mucosa/imunologia , Mucosa/virologia , Infecções por Papillomavirus/virologia , Neoplasias do Colo do Útero/imunologia , Displasia do Colo do Útero/imunologiaRESUMO
A strategy was developed for the control, standardization, and critical evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of human papillomavirus-specific immunoglobulin G in human sera. Control human sera, polyclonal animal sera, and monoclonal antibodies were used to establish optimal assay parameters, including antigen coating, serum dilutions, and criteria for daily reproducibility, monitoring, and rejection of assays. Three evaluation techniques were used in parallel to define an optimal cutoff absorbance value that yields greater than 93% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity in the assay's ability to discriminate positive and negative control sera. This strategy provides an optimal method by which to determine cutoff absorbance values for ELISA.