Measurement of antibodies against meningococcal capsular polysaccharides B and C in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays: towards an improved surveillance of meningococcal disease

Abstract

In order to improve the surveillance of serogroup B and C meningococcal diseases, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) specific for anti-B immunoglobulin M (IgM) and anti-C IgM and IgG antibodies were developed. The tests were evaluated by using paired sera from 122 patients with and 101 patients without laboratory evidence of meningococcal disease. Fifty-three of 67 patients (79%) with culture-confirmed serogroup B disease had an anti-B IgM antibody response; anti-B IgM levels waned rapidly in children <4 years of age. Twenty-four of 25 patients (96%) with culture-confirmed serogroup C disease had an anti-C IgM and/or IgG antibody response (IgM, 92%; IgG, 68%). In patients without evidence of meningococcal disease, 19% of children <4 years of age and 69% of those >4 years of age had intermediate anti-B IgM titers. In contrast, only 1 and 5% of these patients had intermediate titers of anti-C IgM and anti-C IgG, respectively. The ELISAs were shown to be powerful tools for discriminating between serogroup B and C diseases in 96 to 100% of cultureconfirmed cases. For 90% of patients with culture-negative meningococcal disease, a serogroup-specific diagnosis could be established by examination of paired sera in the ELISAs. As serogroup B and C meningococci account for practically all cases of meningococcal disease in industrialized countries, the availability of these tests may improve surveillance and prevention.

Development and evaluation of a rapid multianalyte particle-based flow cytometric assay for the quantification of meningococcal serogroup B-specific IgM antibodies in sera for nonculture case confirmation

“…Although several methods of measuring antibody against serogroup B have been developed, limited information is available about the occurrence of antibodies to serogroup B capsular polysaccharide. Previous methods of serogroup B‐specific antibody quantification include ELISAs, which conjugated biotinylated serogroup B polysaccharide to avidin (Granoff et al , 1995) and PLL (Leinonen & Frasch, 1982; Andersen et al , 1997). These methods, however, utilize extracts of the capsular polysaccharide which are likely to contain protein contaminants and introduce assay variability.…”

The meningococcal antibody test: how useful in the diagnosis of meningococcal disease?

“…For samples taken at this point a recent study [19] has shown that single-point IgM enzyme immunoassay offers a tool for the laboratory confirmation of meningococcal disease. Such an assay might be supplemented with assays determining IgM antibodies against capsular polysaccharides B and C [20], thus enhancing the value of seroepidemiological surveillance. The immune response to capsular polysaccharides cannot be assessed by complement fixation tests [2,3].…”

P64k Meningococcal Protein as Immunological Carrier for Weak Immunogens

“…Plates were processed as published elsewhere [13]. Anti-Men C antibodies were measured as previously described [14]. All sera were analyzed in duplicate.…”