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00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Clark, Stephen A author Willerton, Laura author Claus, Heike author Carannante, Anna author Stefanelli, Paola author Abad, Raquel author Vazquez-Moreno, Julio Alberto author Borrow, Ray author 2024-12-31 Factor H-Binding Protein (fHbp) is a key component of meningococcal vaccines such as MenB-fHbp, licensed in the EU, UK, and other countries. Sufficient expression of fHbp on the bacterial surface is necessary for vaccine-induced antibodies to bind and exert bactericidal activity. The flow cytometric MEASURE assay quantifies fHbp expression in vitro, and previous studies have shown that strains with a Mean Fluorescence Intensity (MFI) >1000 are likely to be killed by MenB-fHbp-induced antibodies. This study assessed fHbp peptide distribution and expression among 451 invasive group B strains collected in 2016 across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (EW&NI), Germany, Italy, and Spain. We found that 92% of the strains expressed fHbp above the MFI 1000 threshold. The strain distribution across EW&NI, Germany, and Italy was similar, with coverage ranging from 92.1% to 94.6%, dominated by a small number of clonal complexes and fHbp peptides. Although, the Spanish subset had a higher proportion of lower-expressing strains, particularly clonal complex 213, resulting in a lower predicted coverage for Spain (84%). These results, along with other published MEASURE data, can provide a basis for genotypic MenB-fHbp coverage predictions, however, inclusion of the upstream intergenic sequence of the fHbp gene in the prediction improved its accuracy by distinguishing between low- and high-expressing strains. Future MEASURE analyses of strains with less common fHbp variants would serve to further refine vaccine coverage predictions. Clark SA, Willerton L, Claus H, Carannante A, Stefanelli P, Abad R, Vázquez JA, Borrow R. Exploring the sequence diversity and surface expression of Factor H-Binding Protein among invasive serogroup B meningococcal strains from selected European countries. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2024 Dec 31;20(1):2427471. 10.1080/21645515.2024.2427471 2164-554X 2164-5515 Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics 39536321 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12105/26441 European Factor H-Binding Protein Neisseria meningitidis Meningococcal Vaccines Exploring the sequence diversity and surface expression of Factor H-Binding Protein among invasive serogroup B meningococcal strains from selected European countries