Use of a multicomponent, recombinant, meningococcal serogroup B vaccine (4CMenB) for bacterial meningitis prevention

Developing effective vaccines against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B has been challenging for several reasons, including the fact that the capsular polysaccharide of N. meningitidis serogroup B is a poor antigen. Therefore, studies have focused on developing vaccines that target capsular protein meningococcal antigens using reverse vaccinology, a technique that predicts likely vaccine candidates using computational analysis of the whole bacterial genome. This has resulted in a multicomponent, recombinant, meningococcal serogroup B vaccine: 4CMenB (Bexsero\uae, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, NC, USA), containing four main immunogenic components: two recombinant fusion proteins (Neisseria heparin-binding antigen-GNA1030 and factor H-binding protein-GNA2091); recombinant Neisserial adhesion A; and detergent-treated outer membrane vesicles derived from the meningococcal NZ98/254 strain, where porin A 1.4 is the major immunodominant antigen. In this article, we summarize the available clinical data on 4CMenB in healthy infants, adolescents and adults, and discuss the methods available for assessing vaccine efficacy. \ua9 2014 Future Medicine Ltd