Contribution of Surface-Exposed Loops on the HPV16 Capsid to Antigenic Domains Recognized by Vaccine or Natural Infection Induced Neutralizing Antibodies.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the causative agent of cervical and other cancers and represents a significant global health burden. HPV vaccines demonstrate excellent efficacy in clinical trials and effectiveness in national immunization programmes against the most prevalent genotype, HPV16. It is unclear whether the greater protection conferred by vaccine-induced antibodies, compared to natural infection antibodies, is due to differences in antibody magnitude and/or specificity.