• Marzia M Giuliani, Alessia Biolchi, Davide Serruto, Francesca Ferlicca, Kay Vienken, Philipp Oster, Rino Rappuoli, Mariagrazia Pizza, and John Donnelly.
• Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Via Fiorentina 1, Siena 53100, Italy.
• Vaccine. 2010 Jul 12; 28 (31): 5023-30.

AbstractSerum bactericidal activity using human complement is the basis for established correlates of protection against invasive meningococcal disease. During the development of multicomponent protein-based vaccines against meningococcus B, it is necessary to measure antigen-specific bactericidal responses. This is not straightforward because each strain may be killed by antibodies to multiple antigens. We characterized a large panel of strains and, using a competitive inhibition SBA, we identified four strains that are each specifically killed by bactericidal antibodies to one of the major vaccine components. These strains provide a straightforward approach to demonstrate protective responses to each component of the vaccine and demonstrate that each of the antigens in the vaccine is sufficient to provide a potentially protective level of bactericidal activity.Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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