Meningococcal vaccine targeted

Based in the School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, University of Queensland, Dr Jennings and his team are analysing the structure and mechanisms of sugar-containing molecules in the bacteria which causes meningococcal meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), in the hope of finding a viable vaccine target.

Dr Jennings' has been awarded a Foundation Research Excellence Award valued at $75,000.

Although meningococcal meningitis is not a common disease, its most serious form, meningococcal septicaemia, can progress from first symptoms to death in only a few hours. There is a vaccine for group C meningitis, but not for the group B strain, which accounts for about half of the meningitis cases in the western world.

"The organism is very difficult to make a vaccine against because it has molecular mimicry, that is, it has structures on the surface that are the same as structures on human cells," Dr Jennings said. "Additionally, it changes its surface all the time, so if you make a vaccine against a target, the cell simply switches it off."

Dr Jennings said finding a target for a meningitis group B vaccine required a lateral approach, by either taking a genetically modified structure that normally was not present, or finding one of the few proteins that were expressed consistently on the cell's surface.

"One of the most recent developments in my laboratory is the work we have done on the glycosylation of bacterial proteins, that is, modifying bacterial proteins by the addition of sugars," he said.

Item provided courtesy of the University of Queensland.