Correction for Fletcher et al., "Vaccine Potential of the Neisseria meningitidis 2086 Lipoprotein".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.4.2088-2100.2004.].

Even whiter than we thought: what median residential exposure indices reveal about white neighborhood contact with African Americans in U.S. metropolitan areas.

This paper expands upon earlier research concerning methodological issues with interracial exposure and isolation (p*) indices. The earlier research, based on the fifty largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States, showed that due to skewness in the distribution of neighborhood racial compositions, these indices often overstate the degree of racial diversity in the neighborhoods of most individuals. That research showed that in the fifty largest metropolitan areas, a new measure, the median exposure or isolation index (p*-md), provided a result more representative of the situation of most individuals. This paper expands the earlier research to include all U.S. metropolitan areas. Focusing on white exposure to African Americans, it is shown that in most metropolitan areas, the majority of whites live in areas significantly whiter than indicated by the p* measure used in past studies. Moreover, the more segregated an area is, the more p* understates the degree to which African Americans are excluded from most whites' neighborhoods. Several implications of this finding for race relations are discussed. It is concluded that p*-md provides a more accurate picture than p* of the neighborhood racial composition of most white individuals.

Vaccine potential of the Neisseria meningitidis 2086 lipoprotein.

A novel antigen that induces cross-reactive bactericidal antibodies against a number of Neisseria meningitidis strains is described. This antigen, a approximately 28-kDa lipoprotein called LP2086, was first observed within a complex mixture of soluble outer membrane proteins (sOMPs) following a series of fractionation, protein purification, and proteomics steps. Approximately 95 different neisserial isolates tested positive by Western blotting and PCR screening methods for the presence of the protein and the gene encoding LP2086. The strains tested included isolates of N. meningitidis serogroups A, B, C, W135, and Y, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Neisseria lactamica. To better understand the microheterogeneity of this protein, the 2086 genes from 63 neisserial isolates were sequenced. Two different subfamilies of LP2086 were identified based on deduced amino acid sequence homology. A high degree of amino acid sequence similarity exists within each 2086 subfamily. The highest degree of genetic diversity was seen between the two subfamilies which share approximately 60 to 75% homology at the nucleic acid level. Flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting) analyses and electron microscopy indicated that the LP2086 is localized on the outer surface of N. meningitidis. Antiserum produced against a single protein variant was capable of eliciting bactericidal activity against strains expressing different serosubtype antigens. Combining one recombinant lipidated 2086 (rLP2086) variant from each subfamily with two rPorA variants elicited bactericidal activity against all strains tested. The rLP2086 family of antigens are candidates worthy of further vaccine development.