Correlation between serological immune response analyzed by a new ELISA for HPV-16/18 E7 oncoprotein and clinical characteristics of cervical cancer patients

Summary. Human papillomaviruses (HPVs), particularly HPV-16/18, are linked to cervical cancer development. Full-length, recombinant HPV-16/18 E7 oncoproteins were used in a new streptavidin-biotin capture ELISA method to investigate anti-HPV E7 antibody prevalence in serum. Sera from 99 healthy women, 70 cervical cancer patients, and 30 patients with cervical pre-invasive neoplasia were analyzed. Anti-HPV-16/18 E7 positivity was found in 53% of cervical cancer patients, in 40% with cervical pre-invasive neoplasia, and in 8% of healthy women. Serum samples from 12 cervical cancer patients were obtained at different time intervals during the treatment. Eleven out of 12 showed a correspondence between HPV-E7 antibody levels (decreasing versus increasing) and the type of response (clinically complete or partial response versus progression or stable disease) at each serological evaluation. Five patients with recurrent HPV-16/18-positive cervical carcinoma were analyzed before and after vaccination with HPV-16/18 E7-pulsed autologous dendritic cells; anti-HPV-16/18 E7 positivity was found in 3 out of 5 women. In conclusion, this assay could potentially be used as an adjunctive tool to monitor the type of response to treatment and possibly to detect antibody induction in cervical cancer patients after vaccination, as a potential marker to evaluate its efficacy.