Synthetic virus-like particles with heterologous epitopes
View Patent ↗The invention is a series of synthetic virus-like particles comprising a heterologous conformational epitope useful in the characterization of human papillomavirus infection, and useful to vaccinate individual for protection against HPV 6 and HPV 11 infections, and assays employing the synthetic virus-like particles.
1. A method to distinguish between the presence of human papillomavirus 6 (HPV 6) and human papillomavirus 11 (HPV 11) antibodies in a sample suspected of containing either or both types of said antibodies comprising the steps of:
a) contacting the sample with a modified recombinant human papillomavirus 6 (HPV6) L1 protein which comprises an HPV 11 conformational epitope; wherein the modified HPV 6 protein comprises a mutation at locations selected from the group consisting of:
(i) K169, T172, P175, and A178;
(ii) T345, T346, and S348;
(iii) F49, R53, and A54; and
(iv) E262, T270, S276, G277, T280, G283 and N289; and
b) detecting binding between the antibodies present in the sample and the modified HPV6 protein;
wherein binding to a heterologous HPV 11 conformational epitope indicates the presence of HPV 11 antibodies in the sample, and binding to a HPV 6 conformational epitope indicates the presence of HPV 6 antibodies in the sample.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the modified HPV6 protein is a virus-like protein (VLP).
3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the sample is a blood sample from an individual suspected of being infected with either HPV 6 or HPV 11.