title: Neisseria proteomics for antigen discovery and vaccine development.
abstract: Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) is a major causative organism of meningitis and sepsis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus) is the causative organism of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. Infections caused by meningococci are vaccine-preventable, whereas gonococcal vaccine research and development has languished for decades and the correlates of protection are still largely unknown. In the past two decades, complementary 'omic' platforms have been developed to interrogate Neisseria genomes and gene products. Proteomic techniques applied to whole Neisseria bacteria, outer membranes and outer membrane vesicle vaccines have generated protein maps and also allowed the examination of environmental stresses on protein expression. In particular, immuno-proteomics has identified proteins whose expression is correlated with the development of human natural immunity to meningococcal infection and colonization and following vaccination. Neisseria proteomic techniques have produced a catalog of potential vaccine antigens and investigating the functional and biological properties of these proteins could finally provide 'universal' Neisseria vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Neisseria Research Group, Molecular Microbiology, Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton, Faculty of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK.
authors.forename: Myron
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christodoulides
mesh_terms: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020543:Proteome / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D040901:Proteomics; D018805:Sepsis / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines; D020543:Proteome
keywords: Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Neisseria lactamica; Neisseria meningitidis; biological and environmental stress; immuno-proteome; outer membrane; proteome; vaccine antigen; vesicle