Abstract
Neisseria lactamica is a commensal organism that is closely related to Neisseria meningitidis, the causative agent of meningococcal disease. N. lactamica has many antigens in common with N. meningitidis, but it lacks a polysaccharide capsule and the serosubtyping antigen PorA. Carriage studies have demonstrated that N. lactamica is carried in the nasopharynx of young children at a time when meningococcal carnage is rare. However, natural immunity to meningococcal disease develops during this period and carriage of commensal Neisseria is implicated in the development of this immunity. Recent studies have characterized the antigens which may be responsible for inducing a crossreactive antibody response and have demonstrated that N. lactamica-based vaccines can protect in experimental models of meningococcal disease. The potential for these vaccines to be effective in preventing meningococcal disease is discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 373-379 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Expert Review of Vaccines |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding was received from the Meningitis Trust and the UK Department of Health. The author thanks M Hudson for critical review of the manuscript, B Dowsett for the electron micrograph of N. lactamica OMVs, and the Meningococcal Vaccine Group at CEPR who are preparing for clinical trial of the N. lactamica OMV vaccine.
Keywords
- Lactamica
- Meningococcal disease
- Neisseria
- Vaccine
