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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, May 2005, p. 586-592, Vol. 12, No. 5
1071-412X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/CDLI.12.5.586-592.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Analysis of Human Serum Immunoglobulin G against O-Acetyl-Positive and O-Acetyl-Negative Serogroup W135 Meningococcal Capsular Polysaccharide

Peter C. Giardina,^1* Emma Longworth,² Renee E. Evans-Johnson,¹ Michaelene L. Bessette,¹ Hong Zhang,¹ Ray Borrow,² Dace Madore,¹ and Philip Fernsten¹

Department of Applied Immunology and Microbiology, Wyeth Vaccines Research, 401 Middletown Road, Pearl River, New York 10965,¹ Meningococcal Reference Unit, Manchester Medical Microbiology Partnership, Health Protection Agency Northwest, Clinical Sciences Building, Manchester M13 9WZ, United Kingdom²

Received 2 December 2004/ Returned for modification 10 January 2005/ Accepted 28 February 2005

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
The capsular polysaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135 is expressed in both O-acetyl-positive (OA⁺) and O-acetyl-negative (OA^–) forms. This study investigates the impact of OA status (OA⁺ versus OA^–) on serological measurements of anti-W135 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in immunized adults. W135-specific serum antibody assignments were made for 28 postimmunization sera from adults by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using the meningococcal standard reference serum CDC1992. The established IgG concentration in micrograms per milliliter ([IgG]µg/ml) for CDC1992 against OA⁺ antigen (16.2 µg/ml) was used as a reference to assign a concentration of 10.13 µg/ml IgG against OA^– antigen by cross-standardization. Overall, the IgG assignments for these sera were higher against OA⁺ antigen (geometric mean concentration [GMC] = 7.16 µg/ml) than against OA^– antigen (GMC = 2.84 µg/ml). However, seven sera showed higher specific [IgG]µg/ml values against the OA⁺ antigen than against the OA^– antigen. These sera were also distinguished by the inability of fluid-phase OA^– antigen to compete for antibody binding to OA⁺ solid-phase antigen. Although there was no overall difference in functional activity measured by complement-mediated serum bactericidal assay (SBA) against OA⁺ and OA^– target bacteria (geometric mean titers of 9,642 and 9,045, respectively), three serum specimens showed a large difference in SBA antibody titers against OA⁺ versus OA^– W135 target bacteria, which may reflect different epitope specificities for these sera. Our data indicate that, for some sera, the agreement in anti-OA⁺ versus anti-OA^– W135 IgG assignments is serum specific and does not reflect the functional (killing) activity in vitro.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Neisseria meningitidis is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes sporadic and epidemic disease worldwide (1). Although capsular serogroups A, B, and C are responsible for most reported illnesses, serogroup W135 disease incidence has been on the rise over the past several years (24). The majority of clinical W135 isolates (approximately 90%) have been reported to express O-acetyl-negative (OA^–) capsular polysaccharide (20). However, no data that show a relationship between capsular OA status and the severity or outcome of disease have been reported. Currently, there is one licensed vaccine in the United States (Menomune; Aventis) that provides coverage against serogroup W135 as well as serogroups A, C, and Y. Improvements in vaccine technology over the last decade have led to the development and licensure of protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccines that provide superior protection against serogroup C-related illness in young children, and the future holds promise for a multivalent meningococcal vaccine based on similar technologies (see reference 25 for a review).

Meningococcal capsular antigens are relatively simple carbohydrates that are anchored to the bacterial surface by the lipid moiety of phosphatidic acid (3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 18, 19, 29). The Y and W135 antigens consist of repeating disaccharide units that present few epitopes to the mammalian immune system (5, 14, 16). It has been shown that bactericidal serum antibodies specific for meningococcal capsular polysaccharides (MnPS) are important for protection against meningococcal disease (12). Serogroups Y (-6-Glcp-1-4-NeupNAc-2) and W135 (-6-Galp-1-4-NeupNAc-2) MnPS are structurally related group II capsular polysaccharides with relatively high negative-charge densities. According to a recent study in the United Kingdom, approximately 79% of serogroup Y strains and 8% of serogroup W135 strains express OA-substituted MnPS (20). Substitutions have been observed at positions O-7 and O-9 on the sialic acid residues of Y and W135 MnPS. OA groups have been shown to migrate from O-7 to O-9 during storage of W135 antigen in aqueous solution (16).

Complement-mediated immunoglobulin-dependent serum bactericidal activity has been shown to correlate with protection against meningococcal serogroup C disease (12). Consequently, the World Health Organization Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals recommends that vaccine manufacturers use the serum bactericidal assay (SBA) as a potential surrogate for meningococcal vaccine efficacy (32). However, due to variability and sensitivity issues associated with the SBA, the World Health Organization also recommends that the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) be used to quantitate capsule-specific humoral immunoglobulin G (IgG).

Published meningococcal ELISA methods employ methylated human serum albumin (mHSA) as a binding agent to promote the adsorption of the anionic polysaccharides to the assay well surface (2, 21). These assays use a standard reference serum, such as CDC1992, to calculate IgG concentrations in micrograms per milliliter ([IgG]µg/ml) in unknown samples. Anti-MnPS immunoglobulin concentrations have been assigned to CDC1992 by cross-standardization in studies reported elsewhere (9, 13, 15). Previously, we showed that for ELISA procedures involving Y and W135 MnPS antigens, the optimal assay plate coating concentrations are serum specific (10), and therefore, interlaboratory agreement may be influenced by antigen coating concentration.

We examined serum IgG in postimmunization human sera against O-acetyl-positive (OA⁺) and OA^– W135 capsular polysaccharides by ELISA and against isogenic OA⁺ and OA^– W135 target strains by SBA. Sera were from adults immunized with a licensed meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (Menomune [serogroup A, C, Y, and W135 vaccine]; Aventis). Note that the vaccine formulation used in this study contains OA⁺ W135 MnPS. The O-acetyl status of the W135 antigen used for serological testing dramatically affected [IgG]µg/ml assignments and bactericidal titers for some individual serum specimens. However, the majority of specimens showed essentially no discrimination between OA⁺ and OA^– W135 targets.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Materials. (i) Antibody-binding assays Various purified OA⁺ and OA^– MnPS were obtained from Wyeth (Sanford, NC) and from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Controls (NIBSC; Hertfordshire, United Kingdom). Lots K13-1001, -1002, and -1004 (Wyeth) consist of OA^– W135 MnPS. Lots L20265-178 (Wyeth) and 01-428 (NIBSC) consist of OA⁺ W135 MnPS. Lot 01-429 (NIBSC) consists of OA⁺ Y MnPS. Polysorp medium-binding 96-well microtiter assay plates were purchased from Nalge Nunc (Naperville, IL). The binding agent, mHSA, was obtained from NIBSC or was prepared by Wyeth as previously described (2, 21). The following antigen-coating buffer was used for antigen adsorption to the 96-well microtiter plates: phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) with 0.02% sodium azide (137 mM NaCl, 2.1 mM KCl, 2.1 mM KH₂PO₄, 7 mM Na₂HPO₄ · 7H₂O, and 0.02% NaN₃, pH 7). The following antibody dilution buffer was used for generating dilutions of sera and goat anti-human IgG-alkaline phosphatase-conjugated antibody (AP conjugate): PBS (see recipe above) with 5% fetal bovine serum and 0.1% Brij-35, pH 7. AP conjugate was purchased from Southern Biotechnology Associates (Birmingham, AL) or Jackson Immunoresearch (Westgrove, PA). The AP colorimetric substrate 4-nitrophenyl phosphate disodium salt · 6H₂O was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). The substrate dilution buffer was composed of 0.5 mM MgCl₂ · 6H₂O in 1 M diethanolamine-HCl solution, pH 9.8. The reaction stop solution was composed of 3 M NaOH. The assay plate wash buffer consisted of Tris-buffered saline with 0.01% Brij-35 (137 mM NaCl, 0.8 mM C₄H₁₁NO₃, 9 mM C₄H₁₁NO₃ · HCl, 2.1 mM KCl, and 0.01% Brij-35, pH 7). Plates were washed on a Bio-Tek model EL-404 or model EL_X-405 automated microtiter plate washer (Bio-Tek Instruments, Inc., Winooski, VT). Colorimetric detection of developed assay plates was performed in a SpectroMax Plus spectrophotometer with a continuous filter set to 405-nm detection and 690-nm reference wavelengths (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). Raw data were collected and processed using validated proprietary software (Wyeth Research, Rochester, NY).

(ii) SBAs. Sterilin 96-well U-bottom plates (Staffordshire, United Kingdom) were used in all SBAs. The assay buffer, Hanks balanced salts, was purchased from Invitrogen; 0.5% bovine serum albumin (Sigma) was added to this assay buffer. The exogenous complement source, pooled sera from 3- to 4-week-old rabbits, was purchased from PelFreez (Brown Deer, WI). Bacteria were cultured on Columbia blood agar with 5% defibrinated horse blood (Oxoid, Basingstoke, United Kingdom) for all assays.

Human sera. The human sera used were generated in a study described previously (10). Briefly, 28 consenting adult volunteers were immunized with a single dose of meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (Menomune; Aventis) (50 µg each of serogroup A, C, Y, and W135 in a 0.5-ml dose administered subcutaneously) on day 0. Plasma was collected and then processed to serum at approximately week 4 postimmunization. The study complied with all relevant federal guidelines and institutional policies.

Antibody-binding assays. Antigen titration experiments were performed as described previously, with some modifications (10). Serial twofold dilutions of OA⁺ or OA^– W135 MnPS antigen with mHSA (10 µg/ml to 0.01 µg/ml) were made in antigen-coating buffer (see "Materials" above) and used to coat 96-well microtiter assay plates (100 µl/well). It has been shown previously that chemically de-O-acetylated MnPS adsorbs poorly to polystyrene microtiter plates (3). The OA^– MnPS used in this study was not chemically de-O-acetylated but was derived from strains which express the OA^– capsular form, and it adsorbs to assay plate wells in the presence of mHSA. Control wells contained antigen-coating buffer only, and all other steps in the assay were the same. The assay plates were incubated at 4°C overnight in a humidified container and subsequently washed with plate wash buffer (see "Materials" above) five times prior to use. Various test sera were diluted in antibody dilution buffer (see "Materials" above) to a concentration that would ultimately produce an optical density of between 1.0 and 2.0 U at approximately 1 h of substrate incubation (A₄₀₅ to A₆₉₀ used as reference).

The published protocol for the meningococcal ELISA was used with minor modifications to measure MnPS serogroup-specific concentrations of IgG antibodies in unknown subject sera and control sera using the reference standard CDC1992 (9, 13). Three lots of OA^– W135 MnPS and two lots of OA⁺ MnPS (see "Materials" above) were used in the ELISA to confirm our results. For competition experiments, test sera were preabsorbed with various concentrations of Y or W135 MnPS fluid-phase competitor for 1 h at 18 to 23°C in 96-well dilution plates immediately prior to testing by the ELISA.

CDC1992 cross-standardization. To assign an [IgG]µg/ml value for anti-W135 OA^– MnPS in the reference serum CDC1992 preparation, cross-standardization was performed against OA⁺ Y and OA⁺ W135 MnPS for which [IgG]µg/ml values are published (16.2 µg/ml for OA⁺ W135 and 31.8 µg/ml for OA⁺ Y MnPS) (9). Briefly, assay plates were coated with OA^– W135 MnPS on part of the plate and with either OA⁺ W135 or Y MnPS on the remainder of the plate (5-µg/ml final concentration each). The binding agent mHSA was used in all assays, as described above. Anti-OA^– W135 IgG antibodies in CDC1992 were calculated for OA⁺ Y or OA⁺ W135 MnPS by linear regression analysis of log-transformed raw optical data. The mean [IgG]µg/ml value (mean of 79 data points) for anti-W135 OA^– MnPS against OA⁺ W135 antigen was used in all subsequent experiments.

SBA. Functional bactericidal antibodies were assessed in sera as previously described (7, 22, 31). The bactericidal titer for each unknown subject serum specimen and control serum specimen was calculated as the reciprocal of the highest serum dilution yielding 50% of the average number of colonies in the complement control wells at 60 min. The meningococcal strain 2144 (serogroup W135 OA⁺) and the isogenic O-acetyltransferase mutant strain 3149 (serogroup W135 OA^–) have been described elsewhere (8). Strain M01-240303 is a nonisogenic OA⁺ W135 strain that was used to confirm some results obtained with strain 2144. The competitive SBA was carried out as described previously (22). Serum specimen HMnP01-JJ was absorbed against either OA⁺ or OA^– W135 capsular polysaccharide antigens by mixing 200 µl of each serum with 200 µl of antigen at a 200-µg/ml final concentration at 15 rpm overnight at 4°C. SBA titers for the absorbed serum were determined against each target strain, as described above.

Statistical methods. The data were evaluated by the method of Lin (17) with some modifications. The Pearson correlation coefficient and concordance correlation coefficient were calculated for log-transformed [IgG]µg/ml assignments against OA⁺ versus OA^– W135 MnPS coating antigen. Influential data points were identified by calculating Studentized residuals and Cook's D statistic using the statistical analysis software package JMP release 5.0.1.2, an SAS product.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
CDC1992 cross-standardization. The published meningococcal W135-specific IgG concentration assignments for CDC1992 were generated with OA⁺ W135 MnPS by cross-standardization in the ELISA with previously assigned values (9). The current study extends the cross-standardization technique to assign a value to CDC1992-specific IgG recognizing OA^– MnPS of W135. All experiments were performed with MnPS and mHSA at 5 µg/ml each in antigen-coating buffer (PBS) (see "Materials" above). Assays performed with OA^– W135 MnPS coating antigens and OA⁺ W135 reference antigen yielded 79 data points from four experiments. From these data, a value of 10.13 ± 0.59 µg/ml (mean ± standard deviation; coefficient of variation [CV] = 5.8%) of OA^– W135-specific IgG was assigned to CDC1992, and this value was used in subsequent experiments.

To confirm this assignment, cross-standardization experiments were carried out with OA⁺ Y MnPS reference antigen against OA^– W135 coating antigen, which yielded 74 data points over four experiments. Cross-standardization against OA⁺ Y MnPS yielded a value of 9.55 ± 0.71 µg/ml (CV = 7.5%, 59 data points) in three experiments run concurrently with experiments described above involving OA⁺ W135 reference antigen, and a mean value of 10.09 µg/ml ± 0.57 (CV = 5.6% from 15 data points) was yielded in a separate experiment. These values agree with the assignment reported above for the OA⁺ W135 reference antigen.

W135 MnPS-specific serum [IgG]µg/ml. The ELISA method was used to measure concentrations of anti-OA⁺ and anti-OA^– W135 serum IgG in immunized subjects. All twofold serum dilutions were transferred side-by-side to assay plates coated with either OA⁺ or OA^– MnPS. Three data points were used to calculate the mean [IgG]µg/ml values for each serum. Overall, the IgG concentrations were determined for all 28 immunized individuals, and the geometric mean concentrations (GMC) against OA⁺ and OA^– MnPS were calculated to be 7.16 µg/ml and 2.82 µg/ml, respectively. All sera had measurable IgG antibodies to OA⁺ W135 antigen (Table 1). However, the sera from seven individuals, HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX -YY, -HH, -PP, and -ZZ, showed higher [IgG]µg/ml values against OA⁺ W135 antigen than against OA^– antigen (ratio of >4.0). Four of these seven sera, HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY, contributed the most to the overall difference between anti-OA⁺ and -OA^– W135 [IgG]µg/ml assigned values. To illustrate this point, statistical analyses were performed with log-transformed data sets generated from an ELISA using OA⁺ and OA^– samples. In this context, the overall correlation of the data is low (Pearson correlation = 0.82; concordance correlation = 0.75). However, the correlation improved significantly when serum specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY were removed from the analysis (Pearson correlation = 0.97; concordance correlation = 0.94). This result is not unexpected, considering the relatively large overall disparity in specific [IgG]µg/ml values between OA⁺ and OA^– sample assays, especially for specimens HMnP01-GG (difference ratio = 30.6) and HMNP01-JJ (difference ratio = 434.8). The result was confirmed in subsequent ELISA experiments with alternate antigen lots. Note that other serum specimens (e.g., HMnP01-PP and -ZZ) also showed relatively large difference ratios between anti-OA⁺ and -OA^– W135 [IgG]µg/ml values. However, the values were relatively low compared to those of other sera in the study and did not have a large impact on the overall GMC against OA⁺ versus OA^– antigen. Therefore, specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY were selected for further analysis.

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TABLE 1. Anti-W135 MnPS mean serum IgG concentrations

Our previous publication showed that antigen-coating conditions for Y and W135 MnPS impact the serum IgG binding profiles selectively (10). Therefore, we analyzed the IgG binding profiles for serum specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY and for the reference standard CDC1992 against OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigens. Twofold serial dilutions of OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigen (10 µg/ml to 0.1 µg/ml in antigen dilution buffer) were used to coat 96-well assay plates. Each serum specimen was tested at a single concentration that would produce raw absorbance values in the linear range between 1.0 and 2.0 U during 1 h of incubation. The resulting IgG binding profiles are shown in Fig. 1. Despite the divergence of the results from titration curves generated with CDC1992, each serum specimen shows qualitatively the same titration profile against OA⁺ and OA^– antigen, except for HMnP01-JJ, which showed no IgG binding profile against OA^– W135 antigen and which had an OA^– W135-specific [IgG]µg/ml assigned value that was close to the lower limit of detection (LLD) for the assay. These results suggest that the [IgG]µg/ml differences shown in Table 1 for these four sera against OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigen are not a consequence of the antigen-coating concentrations for each antigen used in the ELISA.

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FIG. 1. IgG binding profiles for selected sera. Assay plates were coated with twofold serial dilutions (10 to 0.1 µg/ml) of either OA+ W135 antigen () or OA– W135 antigen () in antigen-coating buffer. Sera were tested in triplicate, and the mean colorimetric signals were plotted against the antigen concentrations. Data show that the large differences in [IgG]µg/ml values between OA+ and OA– antigens are not a consequence of the antigen-coating conditions. Note that serum specimen HMNP01-JJ does not have detectable IgG against OA– antigen. (A) CDC1992 was tested at a 500-fold final dilution against OA+ antigen and at a 400-fold dilution against OA– antigen. (B) HMNP01-GG was tested at a 6,400-fold final dilution against OA+ antigen and at a 300-fold dilution against OA– antigen. (C) HMNP01-JJ was tested at a 1,000-fold final dilution against OA+ antigen and at a 50-fold dilution (lower limit) against OA– antigen. (D) HMNP01-XX was tested at a 400-fold final dilution against OA+ antigen and at a 50-fold dilution against OA– antigen. (E) HMNP01-YY was tested at a 300-fold final dilution against OA+ antigen and at a 50-fold dilution against OA– antigen. A405, absorbance at 405 nm.

Impact of soluble competitor on specific [IgG]µg/ml. Competition ELISA experiments with solid-phase antigen and fluid-phase competitor were carried out to analyze the specificity of the serum IgG in specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX -YY, -UU, -DD, and -DDD against OA⁺ and OA^– antigens. Sera were preabsorbed with various concentrations of fluid-phase Y or W135 MnPS (0 to 30 µg/ml in antibody dilution buffer) prior to testing. The percent competition is expressed as the ratio of [IgG]µg/ml with competitor under each test condition to the value obtained without competitor, multiplied by 100. The data generated by using the highest concentration of competitor, 30 µg/ml, are shown in Table 2. For the four serum specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY, OA⁺ W135 competitor was able to compete for binding to the solid-phase OA⁺ W135 coating antigen (>90% for each serum specimen at 30 µg/ml of fluid-phase competitor). In contrast, the fluid-phase OA^– W135 competitor competed for binding only to the OA^– solid-phase W135 antigen for these specific sera. These data are not unexpected, since the ratios of [IgG] µg/ml values against OA⁺ to OA^– antigens (Table 1) are high, especially for serum specimens HMNP01-GG and -JJ. Serum specimens HMNP01-DD, -UU, and -DDD showed a high level of competition against both OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigen regardless of the O-acetyl status of the W135 competitor antigen (Table 2). Results for fluid-phase OA⁺ Y antigen were serum dependent, suggesting that cross-reactive antibodies contribute to ELISA measurements in some, but not all, sera.

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TABLE 2. Percent competition for selected sera at 30 µg/ml of fluid-phase competitor

SBA against OA⁺ and OA^– target strains. The SBA is the gold standard correlate by which protection levels are estimated for meningococcal vaccine trial serology (7, 12, 22, 32). We tested the complement-dependent bactericidal activity of all of the serum specimens (Table 1) by using isogenic target meningococcal W135 strains expressing OA⁺ or OA^– MnPS. The titers for all serum specimens were used to calculate the geometric mean titers for all specimens tested against each bacterial target strain. Cumulative results against OA⁺ and OA^– test strains were essentially the same (geometric mean titers, 9,642 and 9,045, respectively; range, 384 to 262,144, respectively). However, the SBA results for specimens HMnP01-EE, -HH, and -JJ showed considerable differences in bactericidal titers against OA⁺ versus OA^– W135 target bacteria (Table 1). Specimens HMnP01-EE and -HH showed higher titers against OA⁺ than against OA^– W135 target bacteria, while HMnP01-JJ showed a higher titer against OA^– W135 target bacteria.

Note that serum specimen HMnP01-JJ has a higher SBA titer (8,192) against the isogenic OA^– target bacteria despite having a very low specific [IgG]µg/ml value against OA^– W135 coating antigen and a high specific [IgG]µg/ml value against OA⁺ coating antigen (34.78 µg/ml). The lower SBA titer (384) against the isogenic parent OA⁺ target bacteria than against the isogenic OA^– target, therefore, appears inconsistent with the ELISA results for this serum. SBA activity against another OA⁺ target strain, M01-240303, confirmed the titer to be 384. Therefore, serum specimen HMnP01-JJ was tested by competition SBA (22). The results are shown in Table 3. The OA^– MnPS was shown to be effective at reducing the bactericidal titer against the OA⁺ and OA^– W135 target bacteria. However, the OA⁺ MnPS was not effective at reducing the titer against either W135 strain. Control experiments carried out with other serum specimens (e.g., HMnP01-DD, -UU, and -DDD) showed that the OA⁺ W135 competitor was able to significantly reduce SBA titers (up to a >100-fold reduction; data not shown) for serum specimens other than HMnP01-JJ. Control experiments carried out with serogroup C strain C11 showed no reduction in SBA titer in the presence of a soluble W135 MnPS competitor, as expected (Table 3). These data suggest that the bactericidal activity in serum specimen HMnP01-JJ is directed at epitopes specific to the OA^– MnPS soluble competitor.

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TABLE 3. SBA titer for serum specimen HMnP01-JJ with fluid-phase W135 MnPS competitor

To determine if blocking antibodies were the cause of the discrepancy, we mixed equal volumes of serum specimens HMnP01-JJ and HMnP01-II and then measured the SBA activity of the pooled sera against the isogenic target strains. The bactericidal titer was reduced twofold compared to that of serum specimen HMnP01-II, which would be expected in the absence of HMnP01-JJ blocking antibodies (data not shown). These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the bactericidal antibodies in serum HMnP01-JJ recognize epitopes specific for the OA^– MnPS competitor. However, it is important to note that the majority of serum specimens from this study showed essentially no difference in bactericidal activity against the isogenic OA⁺ and OA^– target strains.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
It is reasonable to speculate that both the presence and the position of OA modifications in MnPS may influence immune responses in humans. Several reports have attempted to describe the potential superiority of certain vaccine formulations over others in this regard (2, 4, 11, 23, 27, 28). For example, a recent publication concluded that O-acetyl substitution is critical to the immunogenicity of serogroup A MnPS (4). That report showed higher bactericidal titers (SBA; the serogroup A target strain was OA⁺ F8238) and higher OA⁺-specific IgG concentrations (ELISA; the solid-phase antigen was OA⁺ serogroup A MnPS) in pooled sera from mice immunized with protein-conjugated OA⁺ serogroup A MnPS than in sera from mice immunized with chemically de-O-acetylated antigen. However, it was also noted that chemical de-O-acetylation removes the lipid tail associated with the polysaccharide. Therefore, no serology was possible with solid-phase OA^– antigen due to poor adsorption of chemically de-O-acetylated MnPS to assay plates. Instead, fluid-phase de-O-acetylated antigen was used in competition assays to measure anti-OA^– serogroup A antibodies.

If humoral responses to MnPS are epitope selective, then immunization with highly OA⁺-substituted MnPS may inhibit responses to underlying or adjacent epitopes. This idea was introduced for serogroup C MnPS formulations in a previous report (23), although it should be noted that prior studies found no statistically significant difference in human IgG responses to polysaccharide vaccine formulations containing either OA⁺ or OA^– serogroup C MnPS (2, 27). Clearly, the presence of OA groups introduces unique epitopes to OA⁺ MnPS and may mask epitopes common to both OA⁺ and OA^– antigens. Therefore, it is also reasonable to speculate that some individuals may respond very well to OA⁺ specific epitopes and disproportionately poorly to structures common to both antigens that may be blocked by OA substitutions.

Our data do not refute this speculation. Serologic analyses by ELISA show that although the overall serum GMC was higher against OA⁺ W135 target antigen (see Results), 7 of the 28 volunteers had serum IgG concentrations that were dramatically lower against OA^– W135 antigen. For four of these individuals, the overall GMCs against OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigens were 28.3 µg/ml and 0.83 µg/ml, respectively. Immunization with a formulation containing OA⁺ MnPS may have influenced the ability of these individuals to respond to structures common to OA⁺ and OA^– antigens.

The present study was carried out to determine whether there is a linear association between OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigen and the outcome of serological testing. The overall correlation between OA⁺ and OA^– [IgG]µg/ml assigned values was low (Pearson correlation = 0.82) for the data described here. Excluding specimens HMNP01-GG, -JJ, -XX, and -YY from the analysis improved the correlation (Pearson correlation = 0.97), suggesting that one or more of these data points is a statistical outlier. An analysis of Studentized residuals showed that the data point representing specimen HMnP01-JJ is the only data point that had a value greater than 3 standard deviations from the mean and, therefore, is an outlier that makes the regression model unstable. The simple linear regression model is not adequate to predict the data point for HMnP01-JJ. The Cook's D statistic (26) confirmed that this is an influential data point in the overall model, making the regression model unstable. Excluding this data point from the analysis results in an improved model (Pearson correlation = 0.92), which gives a higher estimate of the correlation between these methods.

Our analysis is complicated by the fact that the Menomune formulation contains both OA⁺ Y and OA⁺ W135 MnPS. Competition ELISA data show, not surprisingly, that Y and W135 cross-reactive antibodies influence specific IgG measurements. The fact that these cross-reactive components are serum dependent strengthens the argument that individual responses to these antigens in humans are heterogeneous and epitope selective. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to sort out the individual responses to OA⁺ and OA^– W135 antigens in the absence of studies of monovalent MnPS vaccine formulations in humans. Likewise, relatively small amounts of MnPS-specific IgM can have a high bactericidal activity and may have a dramatic impact on the magnitude of SBA titers (30). Although we were not able to measure anti-W135 specific IgM at any antigen-coating concentration (data not shown), the influence of trace amounts of IgM cannot be ruled out as the cause of the discrepancy between ELISA and SBA results for specimen HMnP01-JJ. Ultimately, the gold standard SBA may be more useful for assessing meningococcal vaccine efficacy, given the limitations described here and elsewhere for the ELISA.

 
We thank How Tsao (Wyeth) for guidance regarding statistical methods and Tom Jones (Wyeth) for his advice in the preparation and submission of the manuscript.

 
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Applied Immunology and Microbiology, Wyeth Vaccines Research, 401 Middletown Road, Pearl River, NY 10965. Phone: (845) 602-3307. Fax: (845) 602-1885. E-mail: giardip{at}wyeth.com.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 

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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, May 2005, p. 586-592, Vol. 12, No. 5
1071-412X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/CDLI.12.5.586-592.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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