all genetic manipulation procedures are carried out according to standard methods described in &# 34 ; molecular cloning &# 34 ;, a laboratory manual eds . sambrook , fritsch and maniatis , cold spring harbor laboratory press , 1989 . in the following it is described how the applicants produced recombinant bpv - 4 peptides in escherichia coli using pat153 as a source of e7 and l2 . alternatively the invention may be put into effect by use of the l2 and e7 sequence information available from embl sequence database ( accession no . x59063 ). calves of mixed breed , approximately 12 weeks old , were obtained from papilloma - free sources . they were randomly assigned to groups and housed in separate , clean , well - ventilated pens in an isolation unit . all the calves were bled on arrival and at three to four weeks intervals thereafter for haematological analysis . the animals were cared for in complete accordance with the directives of the home office of great britain . the e1 , e2 , e4 and e7 open reading frames ( orfs ) of bpv - 4 were cloned in the pur plasmid series ( ruther and muller - hill , 1983 embo j . 2 p . 1791 ). the cloning of the e1 , e2 and e4 orfs is not described . the orf encoding the e7 peptide was isolated by digesting the bpv - 4 genome cloned in pat153 ( campo m . s . et al , 1982 j . gen . virol . 63 , p . 255 ) with bamhi . the orf encoding the e7 peptide was isolated as a bsri fragment encompassing nucleotides ( nts ) 652 - 1249 and cloned in pur 278 ( ruther and mullter - hill 1983 supra ) via addition of bamhi linkers . the recombinant plasmid was transfected . into escherichia coli jm109 ( promega ltd , southampton , uk ). the bacteria were grown to mid - log phase in l - broth supplemented with 100 μg / ml ampicillin and induced to express the β - gal - fusion protein by addition of 100 μg / ml iptg for 1 - 4hr . β - gal - e7 was prepared by suspending bacteria in lysozyme buffer ( 25 % sucrose , 10 mm mgcl 2 , 50 mm tris hcl ph 8 . 0 , 1 mg / ml lysozyme ) containing 300 μg / ml dnase i . the fusion peptide was pelleted following cell lysis in 0 . 25 % np40 , 0 . 125 % deozycholate , 0 . 25 m nacl , tris hcl ph 7 . 2 and subsequent washes in 1 . 75 m guanidine hcl , 1 m nacl , 1 % triton x100 . the e7 and l2 orfs were cloned in pgex ( smith and johnson , 1988 gene , 67 p . 31 ). the orf encoding the e7 peptide was isolated as described above and cloned in pgex 3x ( pharmacia ltd , milton keynes mk9 3hp , uk ) by blunt - end ligation ( see fig3 ). the orf encoding the l2 peptide isolated by digesting the bpv - 4 genome cloned in pat 153 ( campo et al 1982 supra ) was obtained as a bamhi - ecori fragment encompassing nt 3987 - 5585 and cloned in its entirety in pgex 2t ( pharmacia ltd , milton keynes mk9 3hp , uk ), and also as three dde i fragments : ( i ) a 5 &# 39 ; end fragment ( nt 4042 - 4610 ) in pgex 2t ; ( ii ) a middle fragment ( nt 4610 - 4989 ) in pgex 3x ; and ( iii ) a 3 &# 39 ; end fragment ( nt 4989 - 5629 ) in pgex 3x ( see fig3 ). the gst fusion peptides represent the e7 protein from amino acids - 21 to 98 ( gst - e7 ); the l2 protein from amino acids - 8 to 542 ( gst - l2w ) amino acids 11 - 200 ( gst - l2a ); amino acids 201 - 326 ( gst - l2b ); and amino acids 327 - 542 ( gst - l2c ). transformation and growth of bacteria and production of gst - fusion peptides were carried out as outlined for β - gal e7 . the peptides were prepared in bulk by pelleting inclusion bodies from bacteria suspended in lysozyme buffer containing dnase i at 300 μg / ml and deoxycholate at 1 mg / ml , followed by washing in 0 . 5 % triton x100 / 10 mm edta , ph 8 . 0 . in all cases fusion peptides were suspended by boiling and sonication in 5 % sds , 5mm b - mercaptoethanol , 50 mm tris hcl , ph 8 . 0 prior to vaccination . yields were 2 - 3 mg per gram wet weight of bacteria and 50 - 70 % purity was routinely achieved . the β - gal - e7 , gst - e7 and gst - l2 peptides were characterised by sds - page electrophoresis . the molecular weights of the fusion peptides were all in agreement with prediction . β - gal - e7 and gst - e7 were characterised immunologically using rabbit , bovine or murine antisera raised against β - gal - e7 or gst - e7 or gst - e7 , in elisa or western blot analysis following absorption with the appropriate bacterial protein . the immune sera reacted positively with both the homologous and the heterologous antigen , showing that the fusion proteins were immunologically active and the sera were specific for e7 ( see table 1 ). gst - l2 antigens were reactive in elisa tests with homologous bovine sera , as was a β - gal l2 fusion protein , showing that gst - l2 was active immunologically and the sera were specific for l2 ( see table 1 ). table 1__________________________________________________________________________fusion proteins are immunologically active blank no ag no ab β - gal gst__________________________________________________________________________ β - gal : e7 gst - e7 animal 5 pre - immune 0 . 064 0 . 104 0 . 105 0 . 153 0 . 206 0 . 132 0 . 134 ( β - gal - e7 ) immune 0 . 058 0 . 192 0 . 174 0 . 718 2 . 892 0 . 112 0 . 886 β - gal - l2 gst - l2 animal 16 pre - immune 0 . 064 0 . 149 0 . 124 0 . 15 0 . 231 0 . 284 0 . 317 ( gst - l2 ) immune 0 . 087 0 . 157 0 . 105 0 . 12 1 . 512 0 . 724 2 . 694__________________________________________________________________________ microtitre wells were coated with 500 μg / well of e7 fusion protein or 100 μg / well of l2 fusion protein . gal and gst were used in equivalent amounts . the wells were incubated overnight with the appropriate bovine sera and anti bovine igg conjugated with alkaline phosphatase was added for 1 hour . animal 5 is from exp 3 , group 1 ; animal 16 is from exp 4 , group 2 . eighteen animals were divided into three groups of six animals each . each animal in group 1 was inoculated in the posterior left flank with 1 ml of pbs containing 1 mg of a cocktail of β - gal - early ( e1 , e2 , e4 and e7 ) fusion proteins emulsified in 1 ml of freund &# 39 ; s incomplete adjuvant ( fia ); vaccination ( boost ) was repeated with a fortnight in the posterior right flank . two weeks after the boost , all of the animals in each group were challenged in the palate ( jarrett et al , 1990 the vet record , 126 p . 473 ) with 1012 particles of bpv - 4 . animals in group 2 were vaccinated as above two weeks after challenge , and boosted after a further two weeks . bpv - 4 was purified from oesophageal papillomas and typed as described previously ( campo et al , 1980 nature , 286 , p . 180 ) and the concentration of viral particles was estimated by the electron microscope assay ( jarrett et al , 1990 the vet record , 126 p . 449 ). each animal was examined every three to four weeks , the papillomas were counted and their size measured as previously described ( jarrett , 1985 supra ). nineteen animals were divided into two groups of eleven and eight animals each . the eleven calves in group 1 were each given a 1 mg / 1 ml suspension of the β - gal - e7 fusion protein emulsified in 1 ml of fia into the right quadriceps muscle . the vaccination was repeated four weeks later into the left quadriceps muscle ( boost ). fourteen days after the boost , all the animals in group 1 and 2 were challenged in the palate with 10 11 bpv - 4 particles at ten sites ( 10 10 particles per site ). the animals were examined and the papillomas monitored as above . forty - seven animals were divided into two groups of fifteen animals each ( group 1 and 2 ) and one group of seventeen animals ( group 3 ). the calves of group 1 were each given a 2 ml suspension containing 1 mg of the gst - e7 fusion protein and 1 mg in total of the gst - l2 fusion peptides ( the ratio of the gst - fusion peptides l2w : l2a : l2b : l2c was approximately 1 : 5 : 5 : 5 ) plus 2 ml of fia into the right quadriceps muscle . the vaccination was repeated four weeks later into the left quadriceps muscle . the calves of group 2 were each given 1 mg of the gst - l2 fusion proteins as described above . two weeks after the boost the animals in all three groups were inoculated in the palate at ten different places with a total of 10 11 bpv - 4 particles ( 10 10 particles per site ). the animals were examined and the papillomas monitored as above . thirty - six animals were divided into three groups of twelve animals each . the calves of group 1 were each given a 3 ml suspension containing 1 ml of gst - l2 fusion peptides at 1 mg / ml in the same ratio as above , 1 ml of 40 mm tris - hcl - 0 . 33 % nacl , and 1 ml of aluminium gel , made up of equal volumes of 3 % aluminium hydroxide and 2 % aluminium phosphate ( intervet uk ltd , cambridge science park , cambridge cb4 , uk ). the vaccination was repeated four weeks later . the calves of group 2 were vaccinated as above , but with only 100 μg of l2 fusion peptides per animal . the calves of group 3 were the control . the challenge was as above . immunization with the e7 protein inhibits papilloma development and causes papilloma rejection e7 is the major transforming protein of bpv - 4 in vitro ( jagger et al , j . gen . virol . 71 p . 3041 ) and is expressed throughout the different development stages of alimentary canal papillomas , pointing to its importance for the maintenance of the proliferative state also in vivo . it is homologous to the oncoprotein e7 of human papillomavirus type 16 ( hpv - 16 ) ( jagger et al , 1990 supra ; jackson et al , 1991 molecular carcinogenesis 4 pg . 382 ), the virus most often associated with squamouse cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix in women ( zur hausen , 1991 supra ). because of its pivotal role in cell transformation , e7 may be a target for cell - mediated immune responses leading to tumour rejection , both in bpv - 4 and in hpv - 16 . the applicants conducted two pilot experiments , which will be described briefly , and a third experiment with larger numbers of animals , which will be described in more depth . in the first experiment , the applicants vaccinated calves with a cocktail of bpv - 4 early proteins e1 , e2 , e4 and e7 , synthesized in bacteria as β - galactosidase fusion products ( ruther and muller - hill 1983 supra ; jarrett et al , 1991 virol ., 184 p . 33 ). six calves in group 1 were vaccinated before being challenged in the mouth with bpv - 4 , and six calves in group 2 were vaccinated after challenge . six control calves in group 3 were not vaccinated and were challenged with bpv - 4 ( see table 2 ). four to six weeks after challenge , all the animals developed plaque - like lesions , which are stage la of alimentary canal papilloma development ( jarrett , 1985 supra ). the lesions were confined to the injection sites . during the next twenty weeks , the lesions of the control animals grew in number and size , with secondary spread in the palate ; and went through the well recognised stages of papilloma growth : raised plaques ( stage 1b ), papillomas up to 2 mm in length ( stage 2 ) and papillomas bigger than 2 mm ( stage 3 ). stage 2 and stage 3 papillomas are the mature virus - producing tumours . table 2______________________________________vaccination strategy group exp 1 exp 2 exp 3 exp 4 exp 5______________________________________1 ( pr ) e1 - 2 - 4 - 7 ( 6 ) e7 ( 6 ) e7 ( 11 ) e7 + l2 ( 15 ) l2 * ( 12 ) 2 ( ps ) e1 - 2 - 4 - 7 ( 6 ) e2 ( 6 ) nv ( 8 ) l2 ( 15 ) l2 ** ( 12 ) 3 nv ( 6 ) nv nv ( 17 ) nv ( 12 ) ______________________________________ the number of animals in each group is in parentheses . the animals were inoculated twice with 1 mg of protein , except in exp 5 , group 2 where they received two inoculations of 100 μg each ( l2 ** ). the adjuvant was fia in all cases , except in exp 5 ( l2 * and l2 ** ) were it was aluminium gel ( intervet uk , ltd ). in exp 1 , pr indicates vaccine given pre - challenge and ps indicates vaccine given post - challenge ; in exp 2 - 5 , the vaccine was always administered pre - challenge nv . no vaccine . details of the papilloma developmental stages and their significance in the tumour life cycle have been described ( jarrett , 1985 supra ). approximately thirty weeks after challenge , natural involution of papillomas started to take place with decrease in size and number of lesions , and the animals were essentially papillomatosis - free by week fifty - four . the development of papillomas in a representative animal from this group is shown in fig1 a . all the vaccinated animals , whether vaccinated before or after challenge , had approximately the same number of plaques as the control animals , indicating that the virus was equally infectious and the calves equally susceptible to infection in the three groups . however most of the lesions in the vaccinated animals did not develop to full size , particularly in group 1 , and were most rejected by 40 - 47 weeks after challenge , much earlier than in the control animals . the development of lesions in representative animals from the vaccinated groups are shown in fig1 b and c . two conclusions could be drawn from these results : that therapeutic vaccination was possible , and that , within the time intervals used in this study , the time of vaccination relative to challenge was not critical . to ascertain which one of the four early proteins was responsible for tumour regression , the applicants vaccinated six calves with β - gal - e7 and six with β - gal - e2 before challenge ; six animals were the control group ( see table 2 ). the e2 - vaccinated animals did not behave any differently from the control group , while in the e7 - vaccinated calves most of the lesions did not grow beyond stage la and were rejected earlier than either in the control or in the e2 - vaccinated animals ( data not shown ). in the third larger experiment , eleven calves were vaccinated with β - gal - e7 before challenge and eight calves were kept as controls ( see table 2 ). in this experiment plaques and raised plaques will be considered together as stage 1 lesions . as previously , all the animals developed the same number of plaques four weeks after challenge , confirming that they were all equally susceptible to infection ( see fig2 a ). after ten weeks , the number of stage 1 lesions fell sharply in both groups , concomitant with the increase in the number of stage 2 lesions ( see fig2 b and c ). in the control group , the stage 2 lesions progressed to stage 3 lesions in the following ten weeks ( see fig2 d ) while the number of stage 1 lesions remained constant ( see fig2 b ). there was no secondary spread , due to the smaller does of challenge virus ( see materials and methods ). after five more weeks ( twenty - five weeks post challenge ), stage 3 and stage 2 papillomas started regressing ( see fig2 c and d ). in the e7 - vaccinated group , by week 10 after infection , the number of stage 2 lesions was higher and the number of stage 3 lesions lower than in the control group ( see fig2 c and d ). thirteen weeks post infection , the number of stage 2 papillomas decreased considerably , without concomitant increase in stage 3 papillomas ( see fig2 c and d ). in the e7 - vaccinated animals therefore , progression from stage 2 to stage 3 lesions was being dramatically reduced and stage 2 papillomas were regressing before reaching full maturity . the difference between the control and the vaccine group was observed not only when the number of stage 2 and stage 3 papillomas per group were considered , as in fig2 but also when the percentage of stage 3 papillomas or the percentage of animals with stage 3 papillomas was considered ( see table 3 ). in the three different experiments , a total of twenty - nine animals was vaccinated with e7 . twenty - two ( 76 %) either did not develop mature papillomas or rejected them earlier than the control animals . it may therefore be concluded that vaccination with e7 reduces tumour growth and induces premature tumour regression thus effectively providing a treatment for papillomas . vaccination with e7 is accompanied by both a humoral and a cellular immune response to the vaccine . both responses appear much earlier and have a greater amplitude in the vaccinated animals than in the control calves . whereas all of the vaccinated animals had serum antibodies to e7 , serum antibodies to e7 were not in all of the control animals and some remained negative throughout the course of the experiment . vaccine e7 is therefore presented to both effector arms of the immune system , while viral e7 is poorly presented . this may explain the efficacy of the therapeutic vaccine . the humoral and cell - mediated immune response to e7 and the mapping of the b - and t - cell epitopes will be presented in greater detail elsewhere . l2 is the minor capsid protein of papillomavirus . although the detailed molecular structure of the virion is not yet known , there is circumstantial evidence that a domain ( s ) of the protein is exposed on the surface of the virus ( low titer virus - neutralizing l2 antibodies have been found in rabbits immunised with recombinant l2 protein ( christensen et al , 1991 virology 181 p . 572 ; lin et al , 1992 virology 187 p . 612 )). the applicants have shown that vaccination with the l2 protein of the cutaneous papillomavirus bpv - 2 induced early rejection of fibropapillomas of the skin , accompanied by infiltrates of immune cells in the regressing warts ( jarrett et al , 1991 virology 184 p . 33 ). l2 and e7 were produced in bacteria as glutathione - s - transferase ( gst ) fusion proteins ( smith and johnson , 1988 supra ). fifteen animals were vaccinated with gst - l2 , fifteen with gst - l2 + gst - e7 , and seventeen were kept as control ( see table 2 ). all of the animals were challenged with equal amounts of virus from the same stock . the animals were examined four , seven and eleven weeks after challenge . in group 3 , which had received no vaccine , 13 out of 17 calves developed lesions approximately four weeks after virus infection . these developed through the usual stages ( see table 4 ). eleven weeks after challenge , when the experiment was terminated , one of the four animals that were free of lesions at four weeks had only one stage 1 lesion and three had no lesions at all ( see table 4 and fig3 ). of the fifteen animals in group 1 ( l2 + e7 ), two developed stage 1 lesions which subsequently disappeared , one developed stage 2 lesions , which were still present at the end of the experiment , and twelve did not develop any tumours at all ( see table 4 and fig3 ). in group 2 ( l2 ) by the end of the experiment one calf had five stage 1 and one stage 2 lesions , and the remaining fourteen animals were completely tumour - free ( see table 4 and fig3 ). the 28 vaccinated animals with no tumours were still papilloma - free forty - four weeks after challenge , whereas the control animals still had papillomas . thus the l2 and l2 + e7 vaccines conferred a high degree of protection , an effect almost certainly due to the l2 protein , as the e7 vaccine has no protective effect by itself ( see above ). this was confirmed by a second l2 vaccination experiment , in which only the l2 peptides were used , the amount of antigen was decreased to 100 μg per inoculation per animal and the adjuvant was changed to aluminium gel ( see table 2 ). most animals in group 1 ( 11 out of 12 ) and all the animals in group 2 ( 12 out of 12 ) were completely protected from challenge and tumour - free , whereas 11 out of 12 control animals developed papillomas four weeks after challenge ( data not shown ). the l2 peptides therefore provide a powerful prophylactic vaccine . the results show that it is possible to reduce the dosage of l2 when administered in aluminium salts , while maintaining a strong prophylactic effect . thus the applicants have successfully achieved prophylactic and therapeutic immunisation against mucosal bovine papillomaviruses . this has been accomplished in an animal host against its own natural pathogen . cattle and their papillomaviruses have co - evolved and the immunological response observed in experimental conditions mimics the one observed in nature and is therefore biologically significant ( jarrett et al , 1991 virology , 184 p . 33 ; campo , 1991 cancer cells , 3 , p . 421 ). the success obtained against the mucosal virus bpv - 4 in the face of heavy challenge is particularly remarkable and of special relevance to the possible use of vaccines against genital papillomavirus in human subjects . there are several similarities between the bpv - 4 and the hpv - 16 systems . both viruses infect mucous epithelia , giving rise to lesions that can neoplastically transform . in both viruses the major transforming functions , as defined in in vitro systems , are encoded by the e7 gene . furthermore , the two e7 proteins show amino acid homology . virtually complete protection against bpv - 4 infection was achieved by immunisation with the l2 protein . vaccination with the l2 protein of the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus ( crpv ) has also been shown to have protective effect in the rabbit ( christensen et al , 1991 supra ; lin et al , 1992 supra ), although to a more limited extent than in cattle . taken together , these two sets of results suggest that l2 of hpv might have a similar effect in humans . immunisation with bpv - 4 e7 induces rejection of established tumours which is accompanied by a strong cellular immune response . vaccination of rats and mice with the hpv - 16 e7 gene caused growth retardation and partial regression of tumours induced by hpv - 16 transformed cells ( meneguzzi et al , 1991 virology 191 p . 62 - 69 ; chen et al , 1991 pnas 88 , p . 110 ), and , more recently , vaccination of mice with hpv - 16 e7 elicited a delayed type hypersensitivity response specifically directed against the e7 antigen . therefore e7 of different papillomaviruses can elicit the appropriate immune response to induce tumour rejection . table 3__________________________________________________________________________e7 vaccine weeks post challenge 4 7 10 13lesion stage 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3__________________________________________________________________________ mean number of tumours 6 . 3 0 0 5 . 8 3 . 9 0 0 . 3 8 . 7 0 . 3 1 . 7 8 . 1 0 . 1 in vaccinated group [ 1 . 2 ] [ 1 . 3 ] [ 1 . 3 ] [ 0 . 3 ] [ 0 . 5 ] [ 0 . 2 ] [ 1 . 2 ] [ 0 . 9 ] [ 0 . 1 ] mean number of tumours 3 . 9 1 . 8 0 8 0 . 1 1 . 1 2 . 1 5 . 4 2 . 5 1 . 8 4 . 4 3 . 1 in control group [ 1 . 3 ] [ 1 . 5 ] [ 1 . 4 ] [ 0 . 1 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 6 ] [ 1 . 5 ] [ 0 . 9 ] [ 1 . 7 ] [ 1 . 8 ] vaccinated animals with 11 0 0 8 7 0 1 11 2 5 10 1 lesions [ 100 ] [ 72 ] [ 64 ] [ 9 ] [ 100 ] [ 18 ] [ 45 ] [ 91 ] [ 9 ] control animals with 5 3 0 7 1 2 4 6 3 3 5 3 lesions [ 62 ] [ 37 ] [ 87 ] [ 12 ] [ 25 ] [ 50 ] [ 75 ] [ 37 ] [ 37 ] [ 62 ] [ 37 ] number of lesions in 69 0 0 3 43 0 3 96 3 19 89 1 vaccinated animals [ 100 ] [ 9 ] [ 40 ] [ 3 ] [ 94 ] [ 3 ] [ 17 ] [ 82 ] [ 0 . 9 ] number of lesions in 31 1 10 64 1 10 17 43 25 14 35 25 control animals [ 70 ] [ 29 ] [ 85 ] [ 1 ] [ 14 ] [ 20 ] [ 50 ] [ 29 ] [ 19 ] [ 47 ] [ 34 ] __________________________________________________________________________ weeks post challenge 17 21 25 29lesion stage 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3__________________________________________________________________________ mean number of tumours 2 5 1 . 2 2 . 5 2 . 6 1 0 . 3 3 . 8 0 . 2 1 . 1 2 . 6 0 . 3 in vaccinated group [ 1 . 3 ] [. 1 ] [ 0 . 9 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 0 ] [ 0 . 7 ] [ 0 . 2 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 0 . 1 ] [ 0 . 5 ] [ 0 . 7 ] [ 0 . 2 ] mean number of tumours 1 . 8 3 3 . 8 2 2 . 3 3 . 5 0 3 . 5 2 . 6 0 . 8 1 . 3 0 . 5 in control group [ 0 . 9 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 8 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 1 ] [ 1 . 6 ] [ 1 . 3 ] [ 1 . 6 ] [ 0 . 4 ] [ 0 . 7 ] [ 0 . 3 ] vaccinated animals with 3 9 5 7 3 2 9 2 4 8 2 lesions [ 27 ] [ 82 ] [ 18 ] [ 45 ] [ 64 ] [ 27 ] [ 18 ] [ 82 ] [ 18 ] [ 36 ] [ 72 ] [ 18 ] control animals with 4 5 3 4 4 4 0 5 4 3 3 3 lesions [ 50 ] [ 62 ] [ 37 ] [ 50 ] [ 50 ] [ 50 ] [ 62 ] [ 50 ] [ 37 ] [ 37 ] [ 37 ] number of lesions in 22 55 13 27 29 11 3 42 2 12 29 3 vaccinated animals [ 24 ] [ 61 ] [ 14 ] [ 40 ] [ 43 ] [ 16 ] [ 6 ] [ 89 ] [ 4 ] [ 27 ] [ 66 ] [ 7 ] number of lesions in 14 22 30 16 18 28 0 28 22 6 10 4 control animals [ 21 ] [ 33 ] [ 45 ] [ 26 ] [ 29 ] [ 45 ] [ 56 ] [ 44 ] [ 30 ] [ 50 ] __________________________________________________________________________ [ 20 ] a : stage 1 , plaque ; stage 2 , papillomas & lt ; 2 mm ; stage 3 , papillomas & gt ; 2 mm b : mean number of tumours in a group ; sem in parentheses c : number of animals with lesions in a group ; percentages in parentheses d : total number of lesions in a group ; percentages in parentheses table 4______________________________________e7 + l2 and l2 vaccines weeks post challenge lesion 4 7 11stage 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3______________________________________animal number group 1 ( e7 + l2 ) 1 2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 3 -- -- -- 4 3 -- 1 6 -- 4 - 15 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- group 2 ( l2 ) 16 - 26 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 27 -- -- -- 1 -- -- 5 1 -- 28 - 30 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- group 3 ( control ) 31 5 -- -- -- 6 -- 5 1 -- 32 1 12 -- 6 6 -- -- 5 8 33 5 -- -- 2 8 -- 3 7 -- 34 6 -- -- 2 7 -- 2 6 4 35 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 36 -- -- -- -- -- -- 1 -- -- 37 11 -- -- -- 13 -- 1 6 4 38 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 39 ne 3 2 -- -- 9 -- 40 7 -- -- 4 8 -- 2 9 1 41 7 -- -- 2 9 -- -- 6 -- 42 ne 2 5 -- 1 3 4 43 ne 3 -- -- -- 3 -- 44 ne -- 11 -- -- 10 -- 45 ne -- 1 -- 3 -- -- 46 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 47 ne 5 7 -- 1 8 -- ______________________________________ ne = not examined : numbers represent lesions at each stage ; lesion stages as in table 2 . --, no lesions .
the invention provides pharmaceutical formulations for immunizing against papillomavirus tumors or lesions . formulations may be selected from the group consisting of : a formulation which comprises a papillomavirus l2 protein or fragment thereof that is effective to provide a protective effect to lessen the occurrence and severity of lesions or tumors caused by pv infection and an aluminum compound ; a formulation which comprises a bovine papillomavirus l2 protein or said fragment thereof and an aluminum compound : a formulation which comprises a bpv4 l2 protein or said fragment thereof and an aluminum compound ; a formulation which comprises a bpv - 4 protein or said fragment thereof and an adjuvant ; a formulation which comprises a bpv - 4 l2 protein or said fragment thereof and an adjuvant ; and a formulation which comprises a bpv4 protein or said fragment thereof and an aluminum compound .