Immunological reactivity of human sera with individual herpes simplex proteins: a comparative study of sera from patients with preinvasive or invasive cervical cancer and from controls.

Forty-three human sera collected from patients with preinvasive or invasive cervical carcinoma were analyzed for their repertoire of herpes simplex virus (HSV) specific antibodies reactive with individual viral HSV-1 and HSV-2 proteins. The reactivity was compared to that of sera from 27 control persons. The patients and controls were clinically and histologically characterized in a previous study we carried out, where the analysis of the HLA-antigen pattern was compared among the groups [Vass-Sørensen, 1984]. Immunoprecipitation analysis showed that only a subset of the infected cell proteins was precipitable by the human sera. The major proteins identified in the polyacrylamide gels were the glycoproteins B and D, the ICP-5 and ICP-8. There was no difference between the results obtained with patients and control sera. Immunoblot analysis showed that a different subset of HSV proteins reacted with the human sera, but the variability among individuals was significant. Rank data showed that sera from both patients and controls reacted most frequently with proteins belonging to the "35-family" [Braun et al, 1984] and with the glycoproteins B and D of HSV-1 and HSV-2.