Correlates of cervical mucosal antibodies to human papillomavirus 16: results from a case control study.

Background: While the cervical mucosal immune response to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is believed to be central to viral clearance, it is not well characterized. We performed this analysis to determine correlates of HPV-16-specific mucosal antibody response in women at high risk for infection with HPV.

Methods: Cervical mucosal and serum samples were obtained from participants in a case control study that measured demographic risk factors of cervical disease and HPV infection.

Optimization of a human papillomavirus-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

A strategy was developed for the control, standardization, and critical evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of human papillomavirus-specific immunoglobulin G in human sera. Control human sera, polyclonal animal sera, and monoclonal antibodies were used to establish optimal assay parameters, including antigen coating, serum dilutions, and criteria for daily reproducibility, monitoring, and rejection of assays. Three evaluation techniques were used in parallel to define an optimal cutoff absorbance value that yields greater than 93% sensitivity and 98.