Immunological fingerprint of 4CMenB recombinant antigens via protein microarray reveals key immunosignatures correlating with bactericidal activity

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 4994
• Main Authors: Bartolini, E., Borgogni, E., Bruttini, M., Muzzi, A., Giuliani, M., Iozzi, S., Petracca, R., Martinelli, M., Bonacci, S., Marchi, S., Brettoni, C., Donati, C., Torricelli, G., Guidotti, S., Domina, M., Beninati, C., Teti, G., Felici, F., Rappuoli, R., Castellino, F., Del Giudice, G., Masignani, V., Pizza, M., Maione, D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.10.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 45/23; 631/250/2152/2153/1291; 631/326/590/2294; 692/699/255/1318; 82/79; Adolescents; Adults; Antibodies; Antigens; Bactericidal activity; Biological properties; Biological samples; Correlation; Epitope mapping; Fingerprinting; Humanities and Social Sciences; Immune response; Immune system; Immunology; Infants; Meningitis; multidisciplinary; Peptide mapping; Protein arrays; Proteins; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sepsis; Vaccination; Vaccines
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18791-0

Serogroup B meningococcus (MenB) is a leading cause of meningitis and sepsis across the world and vaccination is the most effective way to protect against this disease. 4CMenB is a multi-component vaccine against MenB, which is now licensed for use in subjects >2 months of age in several countries. In this study, we describe the development and use of an ad hoc protein microarray to study the immune response induced by the three major 4CMenB antigenic components (fHbp, NHBA and NadA) in individual sera from vaccinated infants, adolescents and adults. The resulting 4CMenB protein antigen fingerprinting allowed the identification of specific human antibody repertoire correlating with the bactericidal response elicited in each subject. This work represents an example of epitope mapping of the immune response induced by a multicomponent vaccine in different age groups with the identification of protective signatures. It shows the high flexibility of this microarray based methodology in terms of high-throughput information and minimal volume of biological samples needed. 4CMenB is an approved multi-component vaccine against Serogroup B meningococcus. Here the authors develop a protein microarray for three major 4CMenB antigenic components (fHbp, NHBA and NadA) and describe antibody repertoires in sera from vaccinated infants, adolescents and adults correlating with bactericidal response.