Invasive Neisseria meningitidis infection is rare but carries a high mortality rate. The carriage rate in the normal population is around 10% and can be higher in confined populations. A study on the prevalence of carriage of N. meningitidis was conducted among 3195 army recruits after 2 months of intensive training in an army camp. N. meningitidis was isolated from 37.0% of these recruits. Two...

The tetraspanins are a superfamily of transmembrane proteins with diverse functions and can form extended microdomains within the plasma membrane in conjunction with partner proteins, which probably includes receptors for bacterial adhesins. Neisseria meningitidis, the causative agent of meningococcal disease, attaches to host nasopharyngeal epithelial cells via type IV pili and opacity (Opa) p...

During 1971 and 1972, 71 cultures of neisseriae that attacked lactose were received by this laboratory. All strains except one from an eye swab were from the nasopharynx of healthy subjects. Nineteen similar strains from the nasopharynx were isolated in this laboratory. The characteristics of these strains were compared with those of Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria pharyngis, Neisseria catarr...

Neisseria meningitidis N. meningitidis, or meningococcus, is an aerobic, gramnegative diplococcus, closely related to N. gonorrhoeae, and to several nonpathogenic Neisseria species, such as N. lactamica. The organism has both an inner (cytoplasmic) and outer membrane, separated by a cell wall. The outer membrane contains several protein structures that enable the bacteria to interact with the h...

The family Neisseriaceae consists of Gram-negative aerobic bacteria from fourteen genera (Bergey's 2001), including Neisseria, Chromobacterium, Kingella, and Aquaspirillum. The genus Neisseria contains two important human pathogens, N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis. N. gonorrhoeae causes gonorrhea, and N. meningitidis is the cause of meningococcal meningitis. N. gonorrhoeae infections have a ...

Neisseria meningitidis colonizes the nasopharynx and, unlike commensal Neisseria species, is capable of entering the bloodstream, crossing the blood-brain barrier, and invading the meninges. The other pathogenic Neisseria species, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, generally causes an infection which is localized to the genitourinary tract. In order to investigate the genetic basis of this difference in di...

Meningococcal disease, which is caused by Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis), may present clinically as meningococcemia, meningitis, or with a mixed picture. A 3-year-old girl was admitted to our hospital tender, immobile, hard, hot and erythematous mass measuring 3x4 cm on the left anterior part of neck. The patient diagnosed branchial cleft cyst in side neck regularly followed an otolar...

1. Urwin R. Nucleotide sequencing of antigen genes of Neisseria meningitidis. In: Pollard AJ, Maiden MCJ, editors. Meningococcal disease: methods and protocols. Totowa (NJ): Humana Press, Inc.; 2001. p. 157–72. 2. Van der Ley P, Heckels JE, Virji M, Hoogerheut P, Poolman JT. Topology of outer membrane porins in pathogenic Neisseria spp. Infect Immun. 1991;59: 2963–71. 3. Frasch CE, Zollinger WD...

Technical Appendix Figure 1. Distribution and molecular characterization of Neisseria meningitidis W135 isolates from 3 patients, People's Republic of China, and from Taiwan. ST, sequence type. Figure 2. Distribution and molecular characterization of Neisseria meningitidis W135 isolates from case-patients, People's Republic of China. Minimum spanning tree of 12 W135 isolates typed by multilocus