Development of an outer membrane vesicle vaccine for Africa against serogroup A and W-135 meningococcal disease

Epidemics of meningococcal disease are a significant health problem in most African countries, and there is a strong need for improved and affordable vaccines. We are here proposing a collaborative program between Norway, Cuba and Ethiopia to provide a ne w approach for prevention of bacterial meningitis in Africa. We are focusing on a neglected field of the meningococcal vaccine research, i.e. the development of an affordable vaccine targeting both serogroup A and serogroup W-135 meningococci. This is not being pursued by the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) which focuses only on a conjugate vaccine against serogroup A disease. The basic approach, extraction of bacterial outer membrane proteins in the form of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), has been used successfully by e.g NIPH, Finlay and Novartis for production of serogroup B meningococcal vaccines. These vaccines were shown to be safe and effective for prevention of epidemic group B disease in several countries. The major advantage of this approach, c ompared to plain polysaccharides and polysaccharide-conjugate capsular vaccines, is that we also incorporate important protein antigens in the vaccine. These components will induce bactericidal antibodies and immunological memory, and they will also act a s an adjuvant for polysaccharides. The simplicity and versatility of the production method may enable to produce an affordable vaccine that can maintain efficacy in the face of changing epidemiology. The vaccine project is intended to be a collaboration between scientists from Norway and Cuba, two countries with governmental research institutions, FINLAY and NIPH, which both have long experience with meningococcal vaccine production and clinical trials. The project also intends to enhance meningitis sur veillance in Ethiopia as a preparation for future clinical trials and contibute to build capacity for vaccine research there by utilizing an existing network of Ethiopian collaborators.