POLYPEPTIDE-VACCINES FOR BROAD PROTECTION AGAINST HYPERVIRULENT MENINGOCOCCAL LINEAGES

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide improved compositions for providing immunity against meningococcal disease and/or meningococcal infection.SOLUTION: A small number of defined antigens can provide broad protection against meningococcal infection, and the invention provides a composition which, after administration to a subject, is able to induce an antibody response in that subject, wherein the antibody response is bactericidal against two or three of hypervirulent lineages A4, ET 5 and lineage 3 of N. meningitidis serogroup B. Rather than consisting of a single antigen, the composition comprises a mixture of 10 or fewer purified antigens, and should not include complex or undefined mixtures of antigens such as outer membrane vesicles. Five protein antigens are used in particular: (1) a `NadA` protein; (2) a `741` protein; (3) a `936` protein; (4) a `953` protein; and (5) a `287` protein.