Ovine papillomavirus type 3 virus-like particle-based tools for diagnosis and detection of infection

•Insect cells can be used to produce viable Virus-like particles (VLPs) based on OaPV3 L1.•VLPs-based ELISA allowed investigating natural immune response to OaPV3 infection.•Anti-VLPs antibodies are useful tools for OaPV3 in situ detection.•OaPV3 VLPs are suitable candidates for the development of prophylactic vaccines. The design of prophylactic and diagnostic tools specific to animal papillomaviruses is hampered by the difficulties of viral in vitro manipulation and by the scarce availability of dedicated biotechnological tools. This paper reports the production of Ovine Papillomavirus 3 (OaPV3)-based virus-like particles (OaPV3-VLPs) in the baculovirus system and their use to investigate host humoral immune response through the establishment of an indirect ELISA test., Polyclonal sera and monoclonal antibodies were generated against OaPV3-VLPs, and their isotype and reactivity were determined. Additionally, antibodies allowed OaPV3 detection in ovine squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) samples by immunohistochemistry. Results encourage the standardization of OaPV3-specific prophylactic and serological diagnostic tools, and open new perspectives for the study of host-viral interaction and SCC development.