title: Meningococcal vaccines--present and future.
abstract: Over 20 years after the development of the meningococcal A and C vaccines, an effective vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis group B is still lacking. Major obstacles in the development of a B vaccine have been the remarkable capacity of the organism to evade the immune defences of the host and the lack of a predictive animal model. Three group B vaccines based on outer membrane proteins have been, or are currently being, evaluated in field trials. Nevertheless, a number of important questions remain such as the identity of the active components, the degree of efficacy against heterologous group B subtypes, and the duration of protection. In addition, work on a variety of alternative approaches to a group B vaccine is rapidly progressing. Among these are use of chemically modified group B polysaccharide, synthetic or natural lipopolysaccharide epitopes, synthetic peptides corresponding to bactericidal epitopes on the class 1 outer membrane protein, and iron binding proteins. Although each of these approaches has some problems associated with it, the prospects remain good for an effective solution to the group B problem.
authors.affiliation: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Zollinger
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moran
mesh_terms: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000276:immunology; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides