NadA diversity and carriage in Neisseria meningitidis reviewed.

2004 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists review nadA diversity and carriage in Neisseria meningitidis in a recent issue of Infection and Immunity.

According to recent research from Italy, "NadA is a novel vaccine candidate recently identified in Neisseria meningitidis and involved in adhesion to host tissues. The nadA gene has been found in approximately 50% of the strains isolated from patients and in three of the four hypervirulent lineages of non-serogroup A strains. Here we investigated the presence of the nadA gene in 154 meningococcal strains isolated from healthy people (carrier strains). Only 25 (16.2%) of the 154 carrier isolates harbored the nadA gene."

"The commensal species Neisseria lactamica was also found not to have the nadA gene," reported Maurizio Comanducci and colleagues at Chiron Vaccines. "Eighteen of the carrier strains belonged to the ET-5 and ET-37 hypervirulent clusters, indicating that only 5.1% of the genuine carrier population actually harbored nadA (7 of 136 strains). Five of the seven strains harbored a novel allele of the nadA gene that was designated nadA4. The NadA4 protein was present on the bacterial surface as heat-stable high-molecular-weight oligomers. Antibodies against the recombinant NadA4 protein were bactericidal against ...