Neisseria Meningitidis GNA2132, a Heparin-binding Protein That Induces Protective Immunity in Humans

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2010 Feb 6

PMID 20133713

Citations 89

Authors

Davide Serruto

Tiziana Spadafina

Laura Ciucchi

Lisa A Lewis

Sanjay Ram

Marta Tontini

Laura Santini

Alessia Biolchi

Kate L Seib

Marzia M Giuliani

John J Donnelly

Francesco Berti

Silvana Savino

Maria Scarselli

Paolo Costantino

J Simon Kroll

Cliona ODwyer

Jiazhou Qiu

Andrew G Plaut

Richard Moxon

Rino Rappuoli

Mariagrazia Pizza

Beatrice Arico

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

GNA2132 is a Neisseria meningitidis antigen of unknown function, discovered by reverse vaccinology, which has been shown to induce bactericidal antibodies in animal models. Here we show that this antigen induces protective immunity in humans and it is recognized by sera of patients after meningococcal disease. The protein binds heparin in vitro through an Arg-rich region and this property correlates with increased survival of the unencapsulated bacterium in human serum. Furthermore, two proteases, the meningococcal NalP and human lactoferrin, cleave the protein upstream and downstream from the Arg-rich region, respectively. We conclude that GNA2132 is an important protective antigen of N. meningitidis and we propose to rename it, Neisserial Heparin Binding Antigen (NHBA).

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