Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

NadA, a Novel Vaccine Candidate of Neisseria meningitidis

2002; Rockefeller University Press; Volume: 195; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1084/jem.20020407

ISSN

1540-9538

Autores

Maurizio Comanducci, Stefania Bambini, Brunella Brunelli, Jeannette Adu‐Bobie, Beatrice Aricò, Barbara Capecchi, Marzia Monica Giuliani, Vega Masignani, Laura Santini, Silvana Savino, Dan M. Granoff, Dominique A. Caugant, Mariagrazia Pizza, Rino Rappuoli, Marirosa Mora,

Tópico(s)

Streptococcal Infections and Treatments

Resumo

Neisseria meningitidis is a human pathogen, which, in spite of antibiotic therapy, is still a major cause of mortality due to sepsis and meningitis. Here we describe NadA, a novel surface antigen of N. meningitidis that is present in 52 out of 53 strains of hypervirulent lineages electrophoretic types (ET) ET37, ET5, and cluster A4. The gene is absent in the hypervirulent lineage III, in N. gonorrhoeae and in the commensal species N. lactamica and N. cinerea. The guanine/cytosine content, lower than the chromosome, suggests acquisition by horizontal gene transfer and subsequent limited evolution to generate three well-conserved alleles. NadA has a predicted molecular structure strikingly similar to a novel class of adhesins (YadA and UspA2), forms high molecular weight oligomers, and binds to epithelial cells in vitro supporting the hypothesis that NadA is important for host cell interaction. NadA induces strong bactericidal antibodies and is protective in the infant rat model suggesting that this protein may represent a novel antigen for a vaccine able to control meningococcal disease caused by three hypervirulent lineages.

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