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Infection and Immunity, October 1998, p. 4755-4761, Vol. 66, No. 10
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Specificity of Bactericidal Antibody Response to Serogroup B Meningococcal Strains in Brazilian Children after Immunization with an Outer Membrane Vaccine

Lucimar G. Milagres,1,*,dagger Maria Cecília A. Gorla,1 Claudio T. Sacchi,1 and Mauricio M. Rodrigues2

Bacteriology Division, Adolfo Lutz Institute, São Paulo, SP 01246-902,1 and Departamento de Microbiologia, Immunologia e Parasitologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 04023-062,2 Brazil

Received 18 February 1998/Returned for modification 12 June 1998/Accepted 3 July 1998

Pre- and postvaccination serum samples from 77 children aged 2 to 6 years, who received the Cuban BC vaccine (B:4:P1.15), were analyzed for bactericidal antibodies against a local B:4:P1.15 strain (N44/89). Sera from 16 individuals with bactericidal antibodies against the B:4:P1.15 strain were tested against 23 Brazilian isolates. These include B:4 strains of distinct serosubtypes: P1.15, P1.7,1, P1.3, P1.9, P1.nt, and a B:8,19,23:P1.16 strain. A Cuban B:4:P1.15 strain (Cu385/83) was also included in the study. The specificities of bactericidal antibodies were analyzed by using mutant strains lacking a class 1 protein (PorA protein) or a class 5 protein or both. The results indicated that PorA and class 5 proteins are the main targets recognized by the bactericidal antibodies of vaccinees. Nonetheless, a complex pattern of recognition by bactericidal antibodies was found, and vaccinees were grouped according to antibody specificity. Antibodies from some individuals recognized PorA of serosubtype P1.15. However, antibodies from these individuals could not kill all P1.15 strains tested. Antibodies from a second group recognized both PorA and class 5 proteins, and antibodies from a third group recognized an as yet unidentified target antigen. The results demonstrate the importance of determining the fine epitope specificity of bactericidal antibodies to improve the existing vaccines against B meningococci.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: c/o Dr. Mauricio M. Rodrigues, UNIFESP---Escola Paulista de Medicina, Rua Botucatu, 862, 6° andar, São Paulo, SP 04023-062, Brazil. Phone and fax: (55) (11) 571-1095. E-mail: Rodriguesm.dmip{at}epm.br.

dagger Present address: Division of Molecular and Developmental Immunology, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Infection and Immunity, October 1998, p. 4755-4761, Vol. 66, No. 10
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.