Opa protein repertoires of disease-causing and carried meningococci.

ABSTRACT: The meningococcal Opa proteins play an important role in pathogenesis by mediating invasion of human cells. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether carried and disease-associated meningococci possess different Opa repertoires and whether the diversity of these proteins is associated with clinical severity of disease. Opa repertoires in 227 disease-associated meningococci, isolated in the United Kingdom over a period of 6 years, were compared to the repertoires in 190 asymptomatically carried meningococci isolated in the United Kingdom from a contemporary, nonepidemic period. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was employed to investigate the association between Opa repertoires and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) genotypes. Associations with clinical severity were also analyzed

SUBMITTER: Callaghan MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2546767 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature