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Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, April 2007, p. 451-463, Vol. 14, No. 4
1071-412X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/CVI.00008-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Serum Antibody Responses in Ethiopian Meningitis Patients Infected with Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup A Sequence Type 7{triangledown}

Gunnstein Norheim,1 Abraham Aseffa,2 Mohammed Ahmed Yassin,3,4 Getahun Mengistu,5,6 Afework Kassu,5 Dereje Fikremariam,7 Wegene Tamire,7 Yared Merid,4 E. Arne Høiby,1 Dominique A. Caugant,1,8 Elisabeth Fritzsønn,1 Torill Tangen,1 Tsegaye Alebel,9 Degu Berhanu,2 Morten Harboe,2,10 and Einar Rosenqvist1*

Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH),1 Department of Oral Biology, University of Oslo,8 Institute of Immunology, University of Oslo, and Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet Medical Center, Oslo, Norway,10 Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI),2 Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa,6 Southern Nations, Nationalities' and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) Health Bureau, Awassa,4 Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, The University of Gondar,5 North Gondar Zone Health Bureau, Gondar,9 Yirgalem Hospital, Yirgalem, Ethiopia,7 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom3

Received 20 October 2006/ Returned for modification 9 January 2007/ Accepted 5 February 2007

To elucidate critical components of protective immune responses induced during the natural course of serogroup A meningococcal disease, we studied acute-, early-convalescent-, and late-convalescent-phase sera from Ethiopian patients during outbreaks in 2002 to 2003. Sera were obtained from laboratory-confirmed patients positive for serogroup A sequence type 7 (ST-7) meningococci (A:4/21:P1.20,9) (n = 71) and from Ethiopian controls (n = 113). The sera were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) against serogroup A polysaccharide (APS) and outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) and for serum bactericidal activity (SBA) using both rabbit and human complement sources. Despite relatively high SBA titers and high levels of IgG against APS and OMVs in acute-phase patient sera, significant increases were seen in the early convalescent phase. Antibody concentrations returned to acute-phase levels in the late convalescent phase. Considering all patients' sera, a significant but low correlation (r = 0.46) was observed between SBA with rabbit complement (rSBA) using an ST-5 reference strain and SBA with human complement (hSBA) using an ST-7 strain from Ethiopia. While rSBA demonstrated a significant linear relation with IgG against APS, hSBA demonstrated significant linear relationships with IgG against both APS and OMV. This study indicates that antibodies against both outer membrane proteins and APS may be important in providing the protection induced during disease, as measured by hSBA. Therefore, outer membrane proteins could also have a role as components of future meningococcal vaccines for the African meningitis belt.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404, Nydalen, NO-0403, Oslo, Norway. Phone: 47 22 04 26 19. Fax: 47 22 04 25 18. E-mail: einar.rosenqvist{at}fhi.no

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 14 February 2007.

Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, April 2007, p. 451-463, Vol. 14, No. 4
1071-412X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/CVI.00008-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Norheim, G., Aseffa, A., Yassin, M. A., Mengistu, G., Kassu, A., Fikremariam, D., Tamire, W., Merid, Y., Hoiby, E. A., Caugant, D. A., Fritzsonn, E., Tangen, T., Melak, B., Berhanu, D., Harboe, M., Kolberg, J., Rosenqvist, E. (2008). Specificity of Subcapsular Antibody Responses in Ethiopian Patients following Disease Caused by Serogroup A Meningococci. CVI 15: 863-871 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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