2019 · Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · paywalled
First-void urine as a non-invasive liquid biopsy source to detect vaccine-induced human papillomavirus antibodies originating from cervicovaginal secretions
Van Keer et al.
The finding, in our words
This study demonstrates for the first time that HPV vaccine antibodies can be detected in first-void urine from young women, with levels correlating strongly to serum (Spearman r 0.64–0.88). This non-invasive approach could support large-scale epidemiological studies and vaccine monitoring, reducing the need for venous blood draws, though further optimisation and validation is needed.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A time-resolved fluorescence assay detected HPV16-specific IgG in first-void urine with strong correlation to paired serum across four immunoassays in 225 healthy women, supporting first-void urine as a non-invasive alternative to venous blood for HPV antibody monitoring.
First-void urine IgG remained stable for at least 14 days at room temperature when stored with conservation medium. Amicon filtration with Melon Gel purification enriched HPV16-specific IgG that correlated strongly with serum levels, supporting non-invasive disease monitoring and vaccine impact assessment.
Adding polyethylene glycol to first-void urine before centrifugation markedly improved cell-free DNA recovery in the pellet, whereas low-speed centrifugation alone removed cellular DNA while keeping cell-free DNA in the supernatant. Pseudovirions pelleted reliably under all conditions, but the study revealed substantial variation between self-collected samples, highlighting the need for standardised protocols in decentralised HPV screening programmes.
Over three years after HPV vaccination in 58 women, HPV-specific IgG was detected in 84% to 100% of first-void urine samples against 98% to 100% of serum samples, and the two correlated strongly; the authors support self-collected urine for follow-up of vaccine-induced immunity, with the caveat that only women were studied.
First-void urine tested on the GeneXpert platform detected high-risk HPV DNA with 84.8 per cent sensitivity and 92.3 per cent specificity compared with clinician-collected cervical samples, with substantial agreement (kappa 0.77) and high patient acceptability among 100 HIV-positive women in Zambia, suggesting that decentralised urine self-sampling with an EDTA preservative could widen cervical cancer screening coverage where invasive methods deter uptake.