Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Antigen – epitope – or other immunospecific immunoeffector – Bacterium or component thereof or substance produced by said...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-30
2004-03-23
Graser, Jennifer E. (Department: 1645)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Antigen, epitope, or other immunospecific immunoeffector
Bacterium or component thereof or substance produced by said...
C424S185100, C424S190100, C424S234100, C424S249100, C530S300000, C530S350000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06709660
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to antigens from the bacterium
Neisseria meningitidis.
BACKGROUND
Neisseria meningitidis
is a non-motile, gram negative diplococcus human pathogen. It colonises the pharynx, causing meningitis and, occasionally, septicaemia in the absence of meningitis. It is closely related to
N.gonorrhoeae
, although one feature that clearly differentiates meningococcus from gonococcus is the presence of a polysaccharide capsule that is present in all pathogenic meningococci.
N.meningitidis
causes both endemic and epidemic disease. In the United States the attack rate is 0.6-1 per 100,000 persons per year, and it can be much greater during outbreaks (see Lieberman et al. (1996) Safety and Immunogenicity of a Serogroups A/C
Neisseria meningitidis
Oligosaccharide-Protein Conjugate Vaccine in Young Children.
JAMA
275(19):1499-1503; Schuchat et al (1997) Bacterial Meningitis in the United States in 1995
. N Engl J Med
337(14):970-976). In developing countries, endemic disease rates are much higher and during epidemics incidence rates can reach 500 cases per 100,000 persons per year. Mortality is extremely high, at 10-20% in the United States, and much higher in developing countries. Following the introduction of the conjugate vaccine against
Haemophilus influenzae, N. meningitidis
is the major cause of bacterial meningitis at all ages in the United States (Schuchat et al (1997) supra).
Based on the organism's capsular polysaccharide, 12 serogroups of
N.meningitidis
have been identified. Group A is the pathogen most often implicated in epidemic disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Serogroups B and C are responsible for the vast majority of cases in the United States and in most developed countries. Serogroups W135 and Y are responsible for the rest of the cases in the United States and developed countries. The meningococcal vaccine currently in use is a tetravalent polysaccharide vaccine composed of serogroups A, C, Y and W135. Although efficacious in adolescents and adults, it induces a poor immune response and short duration of protection, and cannot be used in infants [eg. Morbidity and Mortality weekly report, Vol. 46, No. RR-5 (1997)]. This is because polysaccharides are T-cell independent antigens that induce a weak immune response that cannot be boosted by repeated immunization. Following the success of the vaccination against
H.influenzae
, conjugate vaccines against serogroups A and C have been developed and are at the final stage of clinical testing (Zollinger WD “New and Improved Vaccines Against Meningococcal Disease” in:
New Generation Vaccines
, supra, pp. 469-488; Lieberman et al (1996) supra; Costantino et al (1992) Development and phase I clinical testing of a conjugate vaccine against meningococcus A and C.
Vaccine
10:691-698).
Meningococcus B remains a problem, however. This serotype currently is responsible for approximately 50% of total meningitis in the United States, Europe, and South America. The polysaccharide approach cannot be used because the menB capsular polysaccharide is a polymer of &agr;(2-8)-linked N-acetyl neuraminic acid that is also present in mammalian tissue. This results in tolerance to the antigen; indeed, if an immune response were elicited, it would be anti-self, and therefore undesirable. In order to avoid induction of autoimmunity and to induce a protective immune response, the capsular polysaccharide has, for instance, been chemically modified substituting the N-acetyl groups with N-propionyl groups, leaving the specific antigenicity unaltered (Romero & Outschoorn (1994) Current status of Meningococcal group B vaccine candidates: capsular or non-capsular?
Clin Microbiol Rev
7(4):559-575).
Alternative approaches to menB vaccines have used complex mixtures of outer membrane proteins (OMPs), containing either the OMPs alone, or OMPs enriched in porins, or deleted of the class 4 OMPs that are believed to induce antibodies that block bactericidal activity. This approach produces vaccines that are not well characterized. They are able to protect against the homologous strain, but are not effective at large where there are many antigenic variants of the outer membrane proteins. To overcome the antigenic variability, multivalent vaccines containing up to nine different porins have been constructed (eg. Poolman J T (1992) Development of a meningococcal vaccine.
Infect. Agents Dis
. 4:13-28). Additional proteins to be used in outer membrane vaccines have been the opa and opc proteins, but none of these approaches have been able to overcome the antigenic variability (eg. Ala'Aldeen & Borriello (1996) The meningococcal transferrin-binding proteins 1 and 2 are both surface exposed and generate bactericidal antibodies capable of killing homologous and heterologous strains.
Vaccine
14(1):49-53).
A certain amount of sequence data is available for meningococcal and gonococcal genes and proteins (eg. EP-A-0467714, WO96/29412), but this is by no means complete. The provision of further sequences could provide an opportunity to identify secreted or surface-exposed proteins that are presumed targets for the immune system and which are not antigenically variable. For instance, some of the identified proteins could be components of efficacious vaccines against meningococcus B, some could be components of vaccines against all meningococcal serotypes, and others could be components of vaccines against all pathogenic Neisseriae.
THE INVENTION
The invention provides proteins comprising the
N.meningitidis
amino acid sequences disclosed in the examples.
It also provides proteins comprising sequences homologous (ie. having sequence identity) to the
N.meningitidis
amino acid sequences disclosed in the examples. Depending on the particular sequence, the degree of sequence identity is preferably greater than 50% (eg. 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 99% or more). These homologous proteins include mutants and allelic variants of the sequences disclosed in the examples. Typically, 50% identity or more between two proteins is considered to be an indication of functional equivalence. Identity between the proteins is preferably determined by the Smith-Waterman homology search algorithm as implemented in the MPSRCH program (Oxford Molecular), using an affine gap search with parameters gap open penalty=12 and gap extension penalty=1.
The invention further provides proteins comprising fragments of the
N.meningitidis
amino acid sequences disclosed in the examples. The fragments should comprise at least n consecutive amino acids from the sequences and, depending on the particular sequence, n is 7 or more (eg. 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 or more). Preferably the fragments comprise an epitope from the sequence.
The proteins of the invention can, of course, be prepared by various means (eg. recombinant expression, purification from cell culture, chemical synthesis etc.) and in various forms (eg. native, fusions etc.). They are preferably prepared in substantially pure form (ie. substantially free from other
N.meningitidis
or host cell proteins).
According to a further aspect, the invention provides antibodies which bind to these proteins. These may be polyclonal or monoclonal and may be produced by any suitable means.
According to a further aspect, the invention provides nucleic acid comprising the
N.meningitidis
nucleotide sequences disclosed in the examples. In addition, the invention provides nucleic acid comprising sequences homologous (ie. having sequence identity) to the
N.meningitidis
nucleotide sequences disclosed in the examples.
Furthermore, the invention provides nucleic acid which can hybridise to the
N.meningitidis
nucleic acid disclosed in the examples, preferably under “high stringency” conditions (eg. 65° C. in a at 0.1×SSC, 0.5% SDS solution).
Nucleic acid comprising fragments of these sequences are also provided. These should comprise at least n consecutive nucleotides from the
N.meningitidis
sequences and, depending on the particular sequence, n is 10 or more (eg 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 25,
Grandi Guido
Masignani Vega
Pizza Mariagrazia
Rappuoli Rino
Scarlato Vincenzo
Blackburn Robert P.
Chrion S.r.l.
Graser Jennifer E.
Harbin Alisa A.
Robins Roberta L.
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