Why some individuals develop clinical manifestations in Lyme borreliosis (LB) while others remain asymptomatic is largely unknown. Therefore, we wanted to investigate adaptive and innate immune responsiveness to Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in exposed Borrelia-antibody-positive asymptomatic children (n = 20), children with previous clinical LB (n = 24), and controls (n = 20). Blood samples w...

INTRODUCTION Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most common tick transmitted disease in Europe. The diagnosis of LB today is based on the patient´s medical history, clinical presentation and laboratory findings. The laboratory diagnostics are mainly based on antibody detection, but in certain conditions molecular detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may serve as a complement. AIM The purpos...

Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has long been known to be capable of forming aggregates and colonies. It was recently demonstrated that Borrelia burgdorferi aggregate formation dramatically changes the in vitro response to hostile environments by this pathogen. In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that these aggregates are indeed biofilms, structures whose re...

BACKGROUND Tick transmission of Borrelia spirochetes to humans results in significant morbidity from Lyme disease worldwide. Serum concentrations of antibodies against outer surface protein A (OspA) were shown to correlate with protection from infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the primary cause of Lyme disease in the United States. METHODS Mice transgenic for human immunoglobulin genes wer...

We recently hypothesized that T helper 17 (Th17) cells and their associated cytokines are involved in the development of arthritis following infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. Here, we show that interleukin-23 (IL-23), a survival factor for Th17 cells, is required for the induction of arthritis in mice vaccinated with B. burgdorferi strain 297 and challenged with "Borrelia bissettii." When Bo...

AIMS In 2003, pseudorosettes were described as highly suspicious of infection by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in the appropriate clinical context. Nevertheless, such a pattern has been described in the literature in other non-infectious conditions. On the other hand, granuloma annulare (GA) has been recently closely associated with infection by Borrelia. We investigated how frequently pseudo...

Characterisation of Borrelia strains from Ixodes ricinus ticks is important in the epidemiological surveillance of vector-borne pathogens. Multilocus sequences analysis (MLSA) is a molecular genotyping tool with high discriminatory power that has been applied in evolutionary studies and for the characterisation of Borrelia genospecies. MLSA was used to study genetic variations in Borrelia strai...

BACKGROUND Ixodes ticks are the main vectors for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. In the United States, B. burgdorferi is the sole causative agent of Lyme borreliosis and is transmitted by Ixodes scapularis. In Europe, 3 Borrelia species-B. burgdorferi, B. garinii, and B. afzelii-are prevalent, which are transmitted by Ixodes ricinus. The I. scapularis salivary protein Salp15 has been shown to ...

l Background: Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology, while Lyme borreliosis is a multisystemic disorder caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between sarcoidosis and Lyme borreliosis in a region of Japan where Lyme borreliosis is endemic. l Methods: We determined the seroprevalence of antiBorrelia burgdorferi...

Morphology, physiology, and DNA nucleotide composition of Lyme disease spirochetes, Borrelia, Treponema, and Leptospira were compared. Morphologically, Lyme disease spirochetes resemble Borrelia. They lack cytoplasmic tubules present in Treponema, and have more than one periplasmic flagellum per cell end and lack the tight coiling which are characteristic of Leptospira. Lyme disease spirochetes...