FIG. 1.

Sixteen sets of 9-mer peptides covering the entire E5 protein. A complete set of 16 overlapping synthetic peptides, each nine amino acids long and overlapping each other sequences by five amino acids, covering the entire HPV-16 E5 protein was synthesized by using an automated peptide synthesizer (Abimed AMS 422) by using Fmoc chemistry. Peptides were analyzed by reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography, dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide at 1 to 5 mg/ml, and stored at −70°C. The peptides were divided into four groups: pool 1, including peptides 1-9, 5-13, 10-18, and 15-23; pool II, including peptides 20-28, 25-33, 30-38, and 35-43; pool III, including peptides 40-48, 45-53, 50-58, and 55-63; and pool IV, including peptides 60-68, 65-73, 70-78, and 75-83.