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 (c...

During periods of endemic disease, about 10 % of the general population harbour Neisseria meningitidis in the nasopharynx. Since N. meningitidis is a strict human pathogen and most patients have not been in contact with other cases, asymptomatic carriers are presumably the major source of the pathogenic strains. Most carrier isolates are shown to lack capsule production. The capsule deficient s...

Neisserial lipooligosaccharide (LOS) contains three oligosaccharide chains, termed the alpha, beta, and gamma chains. We used Southern hybridization experiments on DNA isolated from various Neisseria spp. to determine if strains considered to be nonpathogenic possessed DNA sequences homologous with genes involved in the biosynthesis of these oligosaccharide chains. The presence or absence of sp...

Pathogenic and commensal Neisseria species produce an Adhesin Complex Protein, which was first characterised in Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) as a novel surface-exposed adhesin with vaccine potential. In the current study, the crystal structure of a recombinant (r)Nm-ACP Type I protein was determined to 1.4 Å resolution: the fold resembles an eight-stranded β-barrel, stabilized by a disulphide bo...

To understand the pattern of nucleotide sequence variation among bacteria that frequently exchange chromosomal genes, we analyzed sequences of the recA, argF, and rho genes, as well as part of the small-subunit (16S) rRNA gene, from about 50 isolates of human commensal Neisseria species and the pathogenic N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae. Almost all isolates of these species could be assigned...

BACKGROUND Deprivation is associated with an increased risk of invasive Neisseria meningitidis disease, but little is known about the relationship between deprivation and asymptomatic carriage of N. meningitidis. This analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between meningococcal carriage and deprivation. METHODS As part of a rapid meningococcal carriage prevalence study conducted i...

Characterization of isolates of Neisseria meningitidis obtained from patients with meningococcal disease or from pharyngeal swabs of asymptomatic carriers can be achieved by several approaches which provide different levels of discrimination. A total of 45 gram negative, oxidase-positive diplococcus strains isolated from 15 individuals with meningococcal disease and 30 of their family contacts ...