JCM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 28 May 2008

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J. Clin. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/JCM.00005-08
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

The Opa protein repertoires of disease-causing and carried meningococci

Martin J. Callaghan^*, Caroline Buckee, Noel D. McCarthy, Ana Belén Ibarz Pavn, Keith Jolley, Saul Faust, Stephen J. Gray, Edward B. Kaczmarski, Michael Levin, J. Simon Kroll, Martin C. J. Maiden, and Andrew J. Pollard

Dept. of Paediatrics, Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford. OX3 9DU, UK; Dept. of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford. OX1 3PS. UK; Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Dept. of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd. Oxford. OX1 3SY, UK; Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, University of Southampton School of Medicine, Mailpoint 218, Level C, West Wing, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton. SO16 6YD. UK; Meningococcal Reference Unit, Health Protection Agency, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WZ, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: martin.callaghan{at}paediatrics.ox.ac.uk.

The meningococcal Opa proteins play an important role in pathogenesis by mediating invasion of human cells. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether carried and disease-associated meningococci possess different Opa repertoires and whether the diversity of these proteins is associated with the clinical severity of disease. Opa repertoires in 227 disease-associated meningococci, isolated in the UK over a period of 7 years, were compared to the repertoires in 190 asymptomatically carried meningococci isolated in the UK from a contemporary, non-epidemic period. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was employed to investigate the association between Opa repertoires and MLST genotypes. Associations with clinical severity were also analysed statistically. High levels of diversity were observed in opa alleles, variable regions and repertoires, and MDS revealed that MLST genotypes were strongly associated with particular Opa repertoires. Individual Opa proteins or repertoires were not associated with clinical severity, though there was a trend towards an association with the opaD locus. The meningococcal Opa repertoire is strongly linked to MLST genotype irrespective of epidemiological sampling and therefore correlates with invasiveness. It is not, however, strongly associated with the severity of meningococcal disease.

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