Genetic variability of Polish serogroup B meningococci (2010–2016) including the 4CMenB vaccine component genes

Izabela Waśko (1) , Agnieszka Gołębiewska (1) , Marlena Kiedrowska (1) , Patrycja Ronkiewicz (1) , Izabela Wróbel-Pawelczyk (1) , Alicja Kuch (2, 1) , Eva Hong (3) , Anna Skoczyńska (1)

1 NRCBM - National Reference Centre for Bacterial Meningitis [Warsaw, Poland]
2 NIL - National Medicines Institute - Narodowy Instytut Leków [Warsaw]
3 Infections Bactériennes Invasives - Invasive Bacterial Infections

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MenB) has recently become the major cause of invasive meningococcal disease in Poland. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to characterize MenB isolates, responsible for invasive meningococcal disease in 2010-2016, by MLST and sequencing of genes encoding proteins used as 4CMenB vaccine antigens. Two methods of coverage estimation were performed: extrapolation of MATS results of Polish meningococci 2010-2011 (exMATS) and gMATS, which combines genotyping and MATS results. Among 662 isolates 20 clonal complexes (CC) were detected, of which the most frequent were CC32, CC41/44 and CC18, accounting for 31.9%, 16.5% and 12.7%, respectively. A total of 111 combinations of PorA variable regions (VR1/VR2) were found, with P1.7,16 (15.0%) and P1.22,14 (13.6%) being prevalent. Vaccine variant VR2:4 was detected in 7.3% of isolates, mainly representing CC41/44 and non-assigned CC. Eighty five fHbp alleles encoding 74 peptide subvariants were revealed. Subvariant 1.1, a component of 4CMenB, was prevalent (24.2%) and found generally in CC32. Typing of the nhba gene revealed 102 alleles encoding 87 peptides. The most frequent was peptide 3 (22.4%), whereas vaccine peptide 2 was detected in 9.8%, mostly among CC41/44. The nadA gene was detected in 34.0% of isolates and the most prevalent was peptide 1 (variant NadA-1; 71.6%), found almost exclusively in CC32 meningococci. Vaccine peptide 8 (variant NadA-2/3) was identified once. Consequently, 292 completed BAST profiles were revealed. Regarding vaccine coverage, 39.7% of isolates had at least one 4CMenB vaccine variant, but according to exMATS and gMATS the coverage was 83.3% and 86.6%, respectively. In conclusion, Polish MenB (2010-2016) was highly diverse according to MLST and gene alleles encoding 4CMenB vaccine antigens. Some correlations between clonal complexes and variants of examined proteins/BAST profiles were revealed and a high coverage of 4CMenB vaccine was estimated.

Mots clés: Bexsero® Antigen Sequence Type; Neisseria meningitidis; invasive meningococcal disease; molecular epidemiology

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Izabela Waśko, Agnieszka Gołębiewska, Marlena Kiedrowska, Patrycja Ronkiewicz, Izabela Wróbel-Pawelczyk, et al.. Genetic variability of Polish serogroup B meningococci (2010–2016) including the 4CMenB vaccine component genes. Vaccine, 2020, 38 (8), pp.1943 - 1952. ⟨10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.01.021⟩. ⟨pasteur-03265136⟩