Development of a simple and quick immunochromatography method for detection of anti-HPV-16/-18 antibodies

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 3;12(2):e0171314. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171314. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Immunochromatography (IC) is widely used to detect target molecules in biological fluids. Since this method can be performed without a special technique or device, IC is a convenient way to assess the existence of antibodies or pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, simply and quickly. In this study, we established an IC method to detect serum antibodies against oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 and HPV-18 L1 proteins using recombinant L1 proteins produced by silkworms as antigens. Infection of oncogenic HPVs is a major risk factor of cervical cancer, which is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide. We first measured blood sera of two groups by magnetic beads enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MB-ELISA). For the first group, sera were collected prospectively from young women who planned to receive HPV vaccination. The second group consisted of children under 20 years of age, non-vaccinated healthy women, vaccinated healthy women, dysplasia, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III, and cervical cancer patients. We confirmed that standard vaccination doses significantly increased serum HPV antibody concentrations, and the level was sustained at least more than 30 months after vaccination. In contrast, an increase in antibody concentration was not observed in patients with precancerous cervical changes and cervical cancer. We next measured the samples in both groups using the IC method we originally developed, and found that the measurement values of IC highly correlated with those of MB-ELISA. The simple and quick IC method would be a useful tool for rapid monitoring of L1 specific antibody levels in a non-laboratory environment. With less than one drop of serum, our IC can easily detect serum HPV-16/-18 antibodies within 15 minutes, without the need for electronic devices or techniques.

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Viral / blood
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology*
  • Capsid Proteins / immunology
  • Chromatography, Affinity / methods*
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Female
  • Human papillomavirus 16 / immunology*
  • Human papillomavirus 18 / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Oncogene Proteins, Viral / immunology
  • Papillomavirus Infections / blood
  • Papillomavirus Infections / immunology*
  • Papillomavirus Infections / virology
  • Papillomavirus Vaccines / immunology
  • Recombinant Proteins / immunology
  • Time Factors
  • Vaccination

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Capsid Proteins
  • HPV L1 protein, Human papillomavirus
  • Oncogene Proteins, Viral
  • Papillomavirus Vaccines
  • Recombinant Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, grant numbers JP23659314 (FS), JP23650620 and JP26640096 (FE) and by some part of the special grant from Tokyo Metropolitan Government (FS). The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors (FE, KO, MU), but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the "author contributions" section.