The serogroup B meningococcal vaccine Bexsero elicits antibodies to Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

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Semchenko, Evgeny A
Tan, Aimee
Borrow, Ray
Seib, Kate L
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2019
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Abstract

Background: Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis are closely related bacteria that cause a significant global burden of disease. Control of gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly difficult due to widespread antibiotic resistance. While vaccines are routinely used for N.meningitidis, no vaccine is available for N.gonorrhoeae. Recently, the outer membrane vesicle (OMV) meningococcal B vaccine, MeNZB, was reported to be associated with reduced rates of gonorrhoea following a mass vaccination campaign in New Zealand. To probe the basis for this protection we assessed cross reactivity to N. gonorrhoeae of serum raised to the meningococcal vaccine Bexsero, which contains the MeNZB OMV component plus three recombinant antigens (NadA, fHBP-GNA2091, and NHBA-GNA1030). Methods: Bioinformatic analysis was performed to assess the similarity of MeNZB OMV and Bexsero antigens to gonococcal proteins. Rabbits were immunised with the OMV component or the three recombinant antigens of Bexsero, and Western blot and ELISA were used to assess generation of antibodies recognising N.gonorrhoeae. Serum from humans immunised with Bexsero was investigated assess the nature of the anti-gonococcal response. Results: There is a high level of sequence identity between MeNZB OMV and Bexsero OMV antigens, and gonococcal proteins. NHBA is the only Bexsero recombinant antigen that is conserved and surfaced exposed in N.gonorrhoeae. Bexsero induces antibodies in humans that recognise gonococcal proteins. Conclusions: The anti-gonococcal antibodies induced by MeNZB-like OMV proteins could explain the previously seen decrease in gonococcal cases following MeNZB vaccination. The high level of anti-gonococcal-NHBA antibodies generated by Bexsero vaccination in humans may result in additional cross-protection against gonorrhoea.

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Clinical Infectious Diseases

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NHMRC

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APP1099278

APP1045235

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© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciy1061

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Biological sciences

Biomedical and clinical sciences

Clinical sciences

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