cWe investigated naturally occurring variation within the major (L1) and minor (L2) capsid proteins of human papillomavirus genotype 45 (HPV45). Pseudoviruses (PsVs) representing HPV45 sublineages A1, A2, A3, B1, and B2 exhibited comparable particle-to-infectivity ratios and morphologies but demonstrated both increased (A2, A3, and B1) and decreased (B2) sensitivities to cross-neutralization by HPV vaccine antibodies compared to that of the A1 sublineage. Mutant PsVs identified HI loop residue 357 as being critical for conferring this differential sensitivity.
The evolutionary mutation rate of the human papillomavirus (HPV) double-stranded DNA genome is low at ca. 2 ϫ 10 Ϫ8 base substitutions per site per year (1, 2), yet distinct genotypes and intragenotype variant lineages have arisen over time (3). HPV genotype 45 (HPV45) is closely related to HPV18 within the Alpha-7 species group and is associated with ca. 5% of cervical cancer cases worldwide (4, 5). Whole-genome sequence analysis of HPV45 strains has led to the delineation of distinct variant lineages (A and B) and sublineages (A1, A2, A3, B1, and B2) (3, 6, 7), with the possibility of a lineage C suggested from subgenomic sequences (8). Although firm data on their contribution to the risk of cervical disease progression are lacking, in part due to the low relative prevalences of individual lineages and sublineages in the population, current evidence does support some lineage-specific bias such that sublineage variant B2 (and possibly A3) appears to be overrepresented in patients with high-grade disease compared to controls (8-10). There may also be some geographical bias to the distribution of HPV45 sublineages (9). Intragenotypic variation occurs throughout the HPV genome, but the consequences of these polymorphisms on the functions of the resulting gene products are uncertain.The HPV structural genes encode the major (L1) and minor (L2) capsid proteins. The L1 protein multimerizes to form the nonenveloped icosahedral viral capsid (comprising 72 L1 pentameric capsomers) that mediates attachment to host cells (11), while the L2 protein is essential for viral infectivity (12). Structural alterations of the external surface topography of L1 can be conferred by minor sequence differences between genotypes (13), supporting observations that almost all neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that target these external surfaces are type specific (14-17). Nevertheless, functional antibody cross-reactivity is a common feature of sera from recipients of the Cervarix (bivalent) and Gardasil (quadrivalent) vaccines (18-22) and may be responsible for conferring HPV vaccine-induced cross-protection (23).It is reasonable to consider that lineage-specific variation in surface-exposed domains (7, 24, 25) may influence capsid recognition by HPV vaccine-derived antibodies. Single-cycle replication-incompetent pseudoviruses (PsVs) representing HPV16 L1, but not L2, variants (26) appear to exhibit little difference in their susceptibilities to type-specific antibodies eli...