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Infection and Immunity, July 2003, p. 3775-3781, Vol. 71, No. 7
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.7.3775-3781.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Antibody Specificities and Effect of Meningococcal Carriage in Icelandic Teenagers Receiving the Norwegian Serogroup B Outer Membrane Vesicle Vaccine

Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, N-0403 Oslo, Norway,¹ Laboratory of Vaccine Research, The Netherlands Vaccine Institute, 3720 AL Bilthoven, The Netherlands²

Received 30 December 2002/ Returned for modification 30 January 2003/ Accepted 28 March 2003

Antibody specificities of pre- and postvaccination serum samples from 40 (53%) teenagers who received three doses of the Norwegian Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B vaccine (B:15:P1.7,16) during a previous trial in Iceland (Perkins et al., J. Infect. Dis. 177:683-691, 1998) were analyzed with serum bactericidal activity (SBA) and immunoblotting assays with reference and isogenic meningococcal H44/76 vaccine strains. The H44/76 variants demonstrated significant vaccine-induced SBA to P1.7,16 PorA and Opc but not to PorB, Opa5.5, and a heterologous PorA protein. On blots, immunoglobulin G levels to all these proteins increased significantly after vaccination. Measurement of SBA to the two main variable regions (P1.7 and P1.16) on the P1.7,16 PorA with PorA deletion mutants revealed significantly higher activity to the P1.7,- and P1.-,16 mutants compared to the P1.7,16 strain, indicating exposure of new accessible epitopes. Only 12 (30%) serum samples showed distinct decreases with these or the P1.-,- mutant, with most samples containing SBA to the P1.7 and P1.16 combination. In contrast, P1.16-specific antibodies were mainly found on blots. Thirteen of the vaccinees (32.5%) were carriers of meningococci at the time of the third dose, of whom four (30.8%) harbored strains of the ET-5 complex. Carriage of P1.15 strains was generally reflected in ≥4-fold increases in SBA and distinct immunoglobulin G binding to the P1.19,15 PorA on blots. Although vaccination did not elicit bactericidal activity to the serotype 15 PorB, most carriers of serotype 15 strains showed ≥4-fold increases in SBA to this antigen.

Editor: J. T. Barbieri

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