ABSTRACT
Eight of 12 serologically different lipooligosaccharides (LOS) of Neisseria meningitidis bound a mouse monoclonal antibody (anti-My-28) that recognizes lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT) (Gal beta 1-4GlcNAc beta 1-3Gal beta 1-4Glc). Among the 12 LOS immunotypes, types 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 exhibited strong binding; types 5 and 10 were moderate; and types 1, 6, 11, and 12 were negative as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, immunodot assays, and immunoblot assays. If an LOS showed multiple components by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis, the antibody-reactive epitope was expressed on the larger major component, of which the molecular weight was estimated to be 4,000 for most types. The expression of the reactive epitope on the LOS was influenced by the growth medium, and the epitope could be masked by sialylation when N. meningitidis was grown in tryptic soy broth. N-Acetyllactosamine inhibited the binding of the antibody to all eight reactive LOS. The antibody binding to a representative LOS was best inhibited by LNnT and next by N-acetyllactosamine but was not inhibited by lacto-N-tetraose (Gal beta 1-3GlcNAc beta 1-3Gal beta 1-4Glc). These results suggest that the LNnT sequence is present in 8 of 12 immunotype LOS. The presence of the LNnT sequence, a structure expressed by a variety of human cells, in the LOS may play a role in the virulence of N. meningitidis by enabling the organism to evade host immune defenses.
