Fig. 4.

Generation of a L2 (65–85) consensus sequence that elicits sera with in vitro cross-reactivity to L2 peptides. (A) ClustalX sequence alignment of L2 (65–85) from selected high-and low-risk HPV types. The conservation analysis and consensus sequence was generated using Jalview 2.7, as described in Fig. 1A. The numbers after the HPV types are added by Jalview and indicate the number of amino acids included. The vertical bars indicate the relative conservation amongst the selection sequences (upper) or to the consensus sequence (lower). The Genbank Protein accession numbers for the HPV sequences used are: 6 (AAK01851.1), 16 (AA4692.1), 18 (ADC35722.1), 31 (AAA46955.1), 33 (AAA4693.1), 35 (AAA4971.1), 39 (AAA47055.1), 45 (ABP99854.1), 51 (ACV88632.1), 59 (CAA54855.1), and 66 (AAA79504). The UniProtKB Protein Knowledgebase database numbers for the remaining HPV types are: 52 – P36763.1, 53 – P36764.1, 56 – P36765.1, and 58 – P26538.1. (B) Comparison of the sequence of HPV16 (65–85), HPV18 (65–85) and the consensus sequence. Note that the consensus sequence contains two motifs found in most of high-risk sequences. (C) Immunization with VLPs displaying all three (65–85) peptides (x-axis) elicit HPV16 and HPV18 peptide-binding antibodies. Serum anti-L2 IgG titers were determined by end-point dilution ELISA targeting the 65–85 peptide derived from either HPV16 (left) or HPV18 (right), as described in Fig. 1C. Data points represent the endpoint titer of individual mice and lines represent the geometric mean for each group.