Oral immunization with bacteriophage MS2-L2 VLPs protects against oral and genital infection with multiple HPV types associated with head & neck cancers and cervical cancer

Publication date: Available online 26 March 2019Source: Antiviral ResearchAuthor(s): Lukai Zhai, Rashi Yadav, Nitesh K. Kunda, Dana Anderson, Elizabeth Bruckner, Elliott K. Miller, Rupsa Basu, Pavan Muttil, Ebenezer TumbanAbstractHuman papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the most common sexually transmitted infections. HPVs are transmitted through anogenital sex or oral sex. Anogenital transmission/infection is associated with anogenital cancers and genital warts while oral transmission/infection is associated with head and neck cancers (HNCs) including recurrent respiratory papillomatosis. Current HPV vaccines protect against HPV types associated with ∼90% of cervical cancers and are expected to protect against a percentage of HNCs. However, only a few studies have assessed the efficacy of current vaccines against oral HPV infections. We had previously developed a mixed MS2-L2 candidate HPV vaccine based on bacteriophage MS2 virus-like particles (VLPs). The mixed MS2-L2 VLPs consisted of a mixture of two MS2-L2 VLPs displaying: i) a concatemer of L2 peptide (epitope 20–31) from HPV31 & L2 peptide (epitope 17–31) from HPV16 and ii) a consensus L2 peptide representing epitope 69–86. The mixed MS2-L2 VLPs neutralized/protected mice against six HPV types associated with ∼87% of cervical cancer. Here, we show that the mixed MS2-L2 VLPs can protect mice against additional HPV types; at the genital region, the VLPs protect against HPV53, 56, 11 and at the oral region, the VLPs pr...
Source: Antiviral Therapy - Category: Virology Source Type: research