Seven cultures of Borrelia burgdorferi differing from strains B31 and ZS7 were identified from among 99 isolates from Ixodes scapularis ticks and from white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and 1 isolate from an Ixodes dentatus tick. Five of the six novel isolates from I. scapularis and the isolate from I. dentatus were from ticks feeding on humans. The six isolates from I. scapularis lacked O...

Password authentication is the most important and convenient protocol for verifying users to get the system’s resources. Lin et al. had proposed an optimal strongpassword authentication protocol (OSPA) which is a onetime password method. It can protect against the replaying attacks, impersonation attacks, and denial of service attacks. However, the authors shall show that the OSPA protocol is v...

Analysis of Lyme borreliosis (LB) spirochetes, using a novel multilocus sequence analysis scheme, revealed that OspA serotype 4 strains (a rodent-associated ecotype) of Borrelia garinii were sufficiently genetically distinct from bird-associated B. garinii strains to deserve species status. We suggest that OspA serotype 4 strains be raised to species status and named Borrelia bavariensis sp. no...

Lyme disease is the major tick-borne disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). Neurological involvement is common in all stages. In vivo expression of Bb antigens (Ags) and the immune response to them has not been well investigated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Upregulation of outer surface protein (Osp) C and concomitant downregulation of OspA before tick inoculation of the spirochete ...

Outer surface protein A (OspA) from the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is a dumbbell-shaped protein in which two globular domains are connected by a three-stranded beta-sheet segment that is solvent-exposed on both faces. Previous studies showed that the whole protein, including the single-layer beta-sheet, is highly rigid. To elucidate the folding mechanism and the role of the ...

Nuclear spin relaxation experiments performed at 298K, 308K and 318K are used to characterize the intramolecular dynamics and thermodynamics of outer surface protein A (OspA), a key protein in the life-cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. It has recently been demonstrated that OspA specifically binds to the gut of the intermediate tick host (Ixodes scapularis), an...

The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, produces two outer surface lipoproteins, OspA and OspB, that are essential for colonization of tick vectors. Both proteins are highly expressed during transmission from infected mammals to feeding ticks and during colonization of tick midguts, but are repressed when bacteria are transmitted from ticks to mammals. Humans and other infected mamma...

Recent advances in the development of animal models for Lyme borreliosis have provided means of identifying potential targets for the design of a subunit vaccine to prevent this disease. The C3H/HeN mouse model was used to study several Borrelia burgdorferi antigens from a single isolate for their ability to elicit borreliacidal and protective antibodies. The ospA, ospB, ospC, ospD, and 83-kDa ...

Southern Sweden is an area of Lyme borreliosis (LB) endemicity, with an incidence of 69 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The most frequent clinical manifestations are erythema migrans (77%) and neuroborreliosis (16%). There was no record of human Borrelia strains being isolated from patients in this region before the prospective study reported here. Borrelia spirochetes were isolated from skin an...

Neuroborreliosis is serious sequelae of Lyme borreliosis. Neuroinvasion is largely relied on successful translocation of Borrelia across the blood-brain barrier. Adherence of Borrelia to brain microvascular endothelial cell (BMEC) seems to be critical for translocation. Here we unfold the interface between OspA and CD40 molecules, major ligand and receptor, that are involved in adhesion of Borr...