BACKGROUND: Serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) isolates currently account for 
approximately 90% of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Greece with ST-162 
clonal complex predominating. The potential of a multicomponent meningococcal B 
vaccine (4CMenB) recently licensed in Europe was investigated in order to find 
whether the aforementioned vaccine will cover the MenB strains circulating in 
Greece. A panel of 148 serogroup B invasive meningococcal strains was 
characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and PorA subtyping. Vaccine 
components were typed by sequencing for factor H-binding protein (fHbp), 
Neisserial Heparin Binding Antigen (NHBA) and Neisseria adhesin A (NadA). Their 
expression was explored by Meningococcal Antigen Typing System (MATS).
RESULTS: Global strain coverage predicted by MATS was 89.2% (95% CI 63.5%-98.6%) 
with 44.6%, 38.5% and 6.1% of strains covered by one, two and three vaccine 
antigens respectively. NHBA was the antigen responsible for the highest coverage 
(78.4%), followed by fHbp (52.7%), PorA (8.1%) and NadA (0.7%). The coverage of 
the major genotypes did not differ significantly. The most prevalent MLST 
genotype was the ST-162 clonal complex , accounting for 44.6% of the strains in 
the panel and with a predicted coverage of 86.4%, mainly due to NHBA and fHbp.
CONCLUSIONS: 4CMenB has the potential to protect against a significant 
proportion of Greek invasive MenB strains.