Serogroup and Clonal Characterization of Czech Invasive Neisseria meningitidis Strains Isolated from 1971 to 2015

Abstract

BackgroundThis study presents antigenic and genetic characteristics of Neisseria meningitidis strains recovered from invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in the Czech Republic in 1971–2015.Material and MethodsA total of 1970 isolates from IMD, referred to the National Reference Laboratory for Meningococcal Infections in 1971–2015, were studied. All isolates were identified and characterized by conventional biochemical and serological tests. Most isolates (82.5%) were characterized by multilocus sequence typing method.ResultsIn the study period 1971–2015, the leading serogroup was B (52.4%), most often assigned to clonal complexes cc32, cc41/44, cc18, and cc269. A significant percentage of strains were of serogroup C (41.4%), with high clonal homogeneity due to hyperinvasive complex cc11, which played an important role in IMD in the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s. Serogroup Y isolates, mostly assigned to cc23, and isolates of clonally homogeneous serogroup W have also been recovered more often over the last years.ConclusionThe incidence of IMD and distribution of serogroups and clonal complexes of N. meningitidis in the Czech Republic varied over time, as can be seen from the long-term monitoring, including molecular surveillance data. Data from the conventional and molecular IMD surveillance are helpful in refining the antimeningococcal vaccination strategy in the Czech Republic.

Diversity of meningococci associated with invasive meningococcal disease in the Republic of Ireland over a 19 year period, 1996-2015

“…Considerable genetic diversity was observed among our isolates with twenty-one distinct STcc identified, broadly in line with the prevalent disease-associated STcc observed in Europe and worldwide over the same time period [1,5,35]. In our study, three STcc (cc41/44, cc269 and cc11) accounted for almost three quarters of the isolates and these are also the three most prevalent STcc circulating in Europe [5,[48][49][50][51]. Many of the STcc persisted over the 19 EYs but to varying degrees in each individual EY as observed elsewhere also [36,50,51].…”

“…In our study, three STcc (cc41/44, cc269 and cc11) accounted for almost three quarters of the isolates and these are also the three most prevalent STcc circulating in Europe [5,[48][49][50][51]. Many of the STcc persisted over the 19 EYs but to varying degrees in each individual EY as observed elsewhere also [36,50,51]. There was an increase in menB STcc heterogeneity during the study contributed to by the decline in prevalence of cc41/44 and cc32 isolates, an increase in cc269 prevalence and the emergence of two STcc (cc461 and cc162) among menB.…”

“…As expected following MCC vaccination, menC declined with a corresponding decrease in the prevalence of cc11 and cc8 isolates; 76.5% and 93.1% of cc11 and cc8 isolates, respectively were received prior to EY2001/2002. Reductions in these STcc were also observed in other countries that introduced the MCC vaccine [20,33,36,50,51,57,58]. However, the recovery of cc11 menC and menW in EY2014/2015 is worthy of monitoring, given the extensive association of this STcc with IMD outbreaks [20,57,59,60] and also especially in view of the recent reports of increasing incidence of menW:cc11 in many European countries [23,27,58,61,62].…”

Evaluation of Neisseria meningitidis Carriage with the Analysis of Serogroups, Genogroups and Clonal Complexes among Polish Soldiers

“…Stephens (1999) estimated that the risk of developing IMD by people living in closed environments is 1-1.5%. The incidence of specific clonal complexes is associated with the dominance of individual serogroups (Trotter et al 2007;Jandova et al 2016 (Skoczyńska et al 2013;Waśko et al 2015). The present study confirmed that serogroup B was predominant among carriers; it was mostly represented by ST-41/44CC.…”

Whole genome sequencing of Neisseria meningitidis W isolates from the Czech Republic recovered in 1984 – 2017

“…Our paper is the first presentation of the results of the WGS study of N. meningitidis W isolates from the collection of the Czech NRL spanning a 33-year period. The first clonal study of the historical collection of isolates of all serogroups recovered from cases of IMD in the Czech Republic over a more than 40-year period was based on the analysis of MLST results [35].…”