Serum antibodies against mimotopes of Merkel cell polyomavirus oncoproteins detected by a novel immunoassay in healthy individuals and Merkel cell carcinoma patients.

ABSTRACT: Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is the foremost causative factor of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a rare yet highly aggressive skin cancer. Although the evaluation of circulating IgG antibodies against Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) LT/sT oncoproteins is clinically useful for MCC diagnosis/prognosis, a limited number of assays for identifying such antibodies have been developed. Herein, a novel indirect immunoassay with synthetic epitopes/mimotopes of MCPyV oncoproteins was computationally designed and experimentally validated on control sera and sera from healthy individuals and MCC patients. Upon computational design of five synthetic peptides, the performance of the immunoassay in detecting anti-oncoprotein IgGs in MCPyV-positive and -negative control sera was evaluated. The immunoass

SUBMITTER: Mazziotta C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11511775 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature