Department of Bacteriology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, South Mimms, Hertfordshire, UK. cvipond@nibsc.ac.uk
In the absence of a suitable carbohydrate-based vaccine, outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccines have been used to disrupt outbreaks of serogroup B meningococcal disease for more than 20 years. Proteomic technology provides physical methods with the potential to assess the composition and consistency of these complex vaccines. 2-DE, combined with MS, were used to generate a proteome map of an OMV vaccine, developed to disrupt a long-running outbreak of group B disease in New Zealand. Seventy four spots from the protein map were identified including the outer membrane protein (OMP) antigens: PorA, PorB, RmpM and OpcA. Protein identification indicates that, in addition to OMPs, OMV vaccines contain periplasmic, membrane-associated and cytoplasmic proteins. 2-D-DIGE technology highlighted differences between preclinical development batches of vaccines from two different manufacturers.