How the knowledge of interactions between meningococcus and the human immune system has been used to prepare effective Neisseria meningitidis vaccines

In the last decades, tremendous advancement in dissecting the mechanisms of pathogenicity ofNeisseria meningitidisat a molecular level has been achieved, exploiting converging approaches of different disciplines, ranging from pathology to microbiology, immunology, and omics sciences (such as genomics and proteomics). Here, we review the molecular biology of the infectious agent and, in particular, its interactions with the immune system, focusing on both the innate and the adaptive responses. Meningococci exploit different mechanisms and complex machineries in order to subvert the immune system and to avoid being killed. Capsular polysaccharide and lipooligosaccharide glycan composition, in…