An analysis of the sequence variability of meningococcal fHbp, NadA and NHBA over a 50-year period in the Netherlands.

Stefania Bambini, Jurgen Piet, Alessandro Muzzi, Wendy Keijzers, Sara Comandi, Lisa De Tora, Mariagrazia Pizza, Rino Rappuoli, Diederik van de Beek, Arie van der Ende, Maurizio Comanducci

PloS one 2013

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Studies of meningococcal evolution and genetic population structure, including the long-term stability of non-random associations between variants of surface proteins, are essential for vaccine development. We analyzed the sequence variability of factor H-binding protein (fHbp), Neisserial Heparin-Binding Antigen (NHBA) and Neisseria adhesin A (NadA), three major antigens in the multicomponent meningococcal serogroup B vaccine 4CMenB. A panel of invasive isolates collected in the Netherlands over a period of 50 years was used. To our knowledge, this strain collection covers the longest time period of any collection available worldwide. Long-term persistence of several antigen sub/variants and of non-overlapping antigen sub/variant combinations was observed. Our data suggest that certain antigen sub/variants including those used in 4CMenB are conserved over time and promoted by selection.

Citation

Stefania Bambini, Jurgen Piet, Alessandro Muzzi, Wendy Keijzers, Sara Comandi, Lisa De Tora, Mariagrazia Pizza, Rino Rappuoli, Diederik van de Beek, Arie van der Ende, Maurizio Comanducci. An analysis of the sequence variability of meningococcal fHbp, NadA and NHBA over a 50-year period in the Netherlands. PloS one. 2013;8(5):e65043