IgG antibody subclass responses determined by immunoblot in infants' sera following vaccination with a meningococcal recombinant hexavalent PorA OMV vaccine

The introduction of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccines into the UK immunisation schedule has led to the decline of serogroup C disease in those vaccinated but there is no imminent vaccine solution for serogroup B disease. The PorA outer membrane protein (OMP) is a potential serogroup B vaccine candidate and an outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccine containing six different PorA OMPs (each representing a different serosubtype) has been evaluated in phase II trials with encouraging results. Little is known about the IgG subclass response to the various antigens contained within this vaccine. These responses are important due to the different half-lives and complement fixing abilities of these antibodies. In this study, immunoblotting was undertaken with infants' sera following either three or four doses of vaccine, and OMVs from six isogenic meningococcal strains differing only in their PorA serosubtype. Following either three or four doses of the vaccine, IgG₃ and IgG₁ subclass antibodies were induced to all six of the isogenic strains, although sera collected after four doses of vaccine showed stronger antibody levels. IgG₃ was found in more sera than IgG₁. For both sets of sera, the two isogenic strains expressing P1.5,2 and P1.5^c,10 induced stronger IgG subclass antibody responses than the other four meningococcal strains. The recombinant hexavalent PorA OMV vaccine stimulates both IgG₁ and IgG₃ subclass antibodies, the subclasses that are most effective in activating the complement system.