title: Identification and characterization of gonococcal iron transport systems as potential vaccine antigens.
abstract: Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the USA, and incidence has been increasing in recent years. Antibiotic resistance among clinical isolates has reached a critical point at which the CDC currently recommends only a single class of antibiotic for treatment. These developments have hastened the search for a vaccine to protect against gonococcal infections. Vaccine efforts have been thwarted by the ability of the gonococcus to antigenically vary most surface structures. The transferrin-iron transport system is not subject to high-frequency phase or antigenic variation and is expressed by all pathogenic Neisseria. Vaccine formulations comprised of epitopes of the transferrin-binding proteins complexed with inactivated cholera toxin generated antibodies with potentially protective characteristics. These antigens, and others predicted from genome sequence data, could be developed into a vaccine that protects against neisserial infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980678, Richmond, VA 23298-0678, USA. cncornel@vcu.edu
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
mesh_terms: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D007501:Iron