Analysis of the ontogeny of the murine humoral response to Neisseria meningitidis B capsular polysaccharide reveals levels of complexity relevant to vaccine development
J. Colino et I. Outschoorn, Analysis of the ontogeny of the murine humoral response to Neisseria meningitidis B capsular polysaccharide reveals levels of complexity relevant to vaccine development, J INFEC DIS, 184(12), 2001, pp. 1538-1547
Although purified capsular polysaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis group B
(CpsB) is not immunogenic at any age, CpsB on the bacterial surface elicit
s antibody responses late in ontogeny. Therefore, a detailed analysis of th
e ontogeny of the murine anti-CpsB response to N. meningitidis could determ
ine key parameters regarding the poor immunogenicity of CpsB. The effects o
f bacterial dose, hyperimmunization, age, and sex on the induction of prima
ry and secondary anti-CpsB immunoglobulin isotype profiles were studied. It
was demonstrated that the timing and repetition of immunization and of the
bacterial dose have a marked differential effect on the primary induction
of anti-CpsB immunoglobulin isotypes and on the ability to induce anti-CpsB
antibody responses after subsequent rechallenge. It is noteworthy that the
ontogeny of the response is related to the appearance of natural anti-CpsB
antibodies, but this is not associated with the presence of CpsB cross-rea
ctive antigens in the microflora.