We used a surface trypsinolysis assay to probe accessibility of the membrane-proximal N-terminal tether peptides of Borrelia surface lipoproteins OspA and Vsp1. Our findings with both wild-type and mutant proteins are only compatible with the anchoring of these surface lipoproteins in the outer leaflet of the outer spirochetal membrane.

Natural antibodies are those immunoglobulin molecules found in mammalian serum that arise in the absence of exposure to environmental pathogens and may comprise an early host defense against invading pathogens. The spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi first encounters natural antibodies when its arthropod vector, Ixodes scapularis, begins feeding on a mammalian host. Natural antibodies may therefore...

Alteration of the outer surface protein (Osp) composition--especially that of OspA and OspC--seems to be important for the adaptation of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato to its endothermic hosts (mammals) and poikilothermic vectors (ticks). OspA possibly mediates adherence to tick midgut cells thus enabling the borreliae to survive in the vector, while OspC is associated with borrelial invasion ...

Natural tick transmission of infection by Borrelia burgdorferi induces a very different serum antibody response than needle inoculation of spirochetes. We present data, obtained by using the mouse model, that show that the OspA response was barely detectable, whereas all animals developed significant anti-P39 titers after exposure to B. burgdorferi-infected ticks.

We investigated the presence of glycoproteins in Borrelia burgdorferi. We did not find any evidence for glycosylation of the major outer membrane proteins OspA and OspB or the structural flagellar proteins FlaB and FlaA. We suggest that glycoproteins present on the surface of B. burgdorferi may be tightly bound culture medium glycoproteins.

VlsE, the variable surface antigen of Borrelia burgdorferi, contains an immunodominant conserved region named IR(6). In the present study, the diagnostic performance of a peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on a 26-mer synthetic peptide (C(6)) with the IR(6) sequence was explored. Sensitivity was assessed with serum samples (n = 210) collected from patients with clinically d...

introduction: to investigate the role of borrelia infections in pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (ms) the presence of antibody against borrelia persica (the most common species of borrelia in iran) in the serum and csf of ms patients was studied. material and methods: the presence of antibodies against borrelia persica antigens was studied in the serum and csf of 50 ms patients and 30 age and...