一种新型的疫苗可令机体对300多株脑膜炎球菌-B产生免疫力，脑膜炎球菌-B是引起脑膜炎的致病菌。 研发一种广谱的该菌疫苗此前一直很困难，因为该菌有无数正在流行的菌株。 脑膜炎是由不同的微生物引起的（如 组-A、C、 W-135及Y，这些致病菌的感染都可用疫苗来预防），但脑膜炎球菌-B是其中最常见也是最难控制的形式。 感染脑膜炎的人常常会有脑损伤、学习能力丧失、听觉丧失、肢体丧失甚或死亡。
该病仍然是全球公共卫生的一个重大问题，尤其是对婴儿，因为他们被感染的风险最大。 在该项试验中，Rino Rappuoli及其同事制备了用于免疫小鼠的54种免疫原（即可触发身体免疫防御武器库做出反应的异体物质）。 在经过对小鼠的测试以观察接触不同的脑膜炎球菌-B菌株时有哪些免疫原会刺激产生抗体之后，该研究团队将注意力集中在8种特别的免疫原上，因为它们会刺激产生最佳的抗体反应。 接着，研究人员针对一个更大且更多样化的脑膜炎球菌-B菌株组来对这些免疫原做进一步的测试。 Rappuoli及其同事从这8种免疫原中确认了其中最优越的免疫原（叫做G1），它可杀灭所有脑膜炎球菌-B的菌株，表明人们可用G1来制造一种具有广谱保护性的疫苗。
这种设计疫苗的方法也许对其它的显示出类似高度变异性的病原体（如HIV）也有用。 一则相关的《观点栏目》就这些结果对未来疫苗设计的意义进行了讨论。
引起脑膜炎的球菌图片
生物探索推荐英文摘要
Rational Design of a Meningococcal Antigen Inducing Broad Protective Immunity
Abstract：The sequence variability of protective antigens is a major challenge to the development of vaccines. For Neisseria meningitidis, the bacterial pathogen that causes meningitis, the amino acid sequence of the protective antigen factor H binding protein (fHBP) has more than 300 variations. These sequence differences can be classified into three distinct groups of antigenic variants that do not induce cross-protective immunity. Our goal was to generate a single antigen that would induce immunity against all known sequence variants of N. meningitidis. To achieve this, we rationally designed, expressed, and purified 54 different mutants of fHBP and tested them in mice for the induction of protective immunity. We identified and determined the crystal structure of a lead chimeric antigen that was able to induce high levels of cross-protective antibodies in mice against all variant strains tested. The new fHBP antigen had a conserved backbone that carried an engineered surface containing specificities for all three variant groups. We demonstrate that the structure-based design of multiple immunodominant antigenic surfaces on a single protein scaffold is possible and represents an effective way to create broadly protective vaccines.
