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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, Sep 1995, 574-582, Vol 2, No. 5
DM Granoff, SK Kelsey, HA Bijlmer, L Van Alphen, J Dankert, RE Mandrell, FH Azmi and RJ Scholten
We measured antibody responses to meningococcal serogroup B (MenB)
polysaccharide (PS) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in sera
from 94 patients from The Netherlands with disease caused by Neisseria
meningitidis group B. The patients ranged in age from 3 to 73 years (mean
age, 18.8 years). In initial studies we showed that the binding of a panel
of MenB PS-reactive human immunoglobulin M (IgM) paraproteins to
biotinylated MenB PS bound to avidin-coated microtiter wells was inhibited
> 90% by the addition of soluble MenB PS or encapsulated group B
meningococci. In contrast, inhibition of IgM anti- MenB PS antibody-binding
activity in many of the patient sera was less than 50% (range, 20 to 94%).
These data suggested a high frequency of nonspecific binding in the patient
sera. Therefore, all serum samples were assayed in replicate in the
presence or absence of soluble MenB PS, and only the inhibitable fraction
of the binding signal was used to calculate the anti-MenB PS antibody
concentrations. In 17 control patients with meningococcal disease caused by
serogroup A or C strains, there was no significant difference in the
respective IgM or IgG anti- MenB PS antibody concentrations in paired
acute- and convalescent-phase sera. In contrast, in patients with MenB
disease, the geometric mean IgM anti-MenB PS antibody concentration
increased from 3.9 units/ml in acute-phase serum to 10.5 units/ml in
convalescent-phase serum (P < 0.001). The corresponding geometric mean
IgG anti-MenB PS antibody titers were 1:27 and 1:36 (P < 0.05). There
was only a weak relationship between age and the magnitude of the logarithm
of the antibody concentrations in convalescent-phase sera (for IgM, r2 =
0.06 and P < 0.05; for IgG, r2 = 0.08 and P < 0.01).(ABSTRACT
TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Antibody responses to the capsular polysaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B in patients with meningococcal disease
Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, California 94609, USA.
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