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Infection and Immunity, May 2001, p. 3224-3231, Vol. 69, No. 5
Department of Parasitology, Tulane Regional Primate
Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences Center,
Covington, Louisiana 70433
Received 18 December 2000/Returned for modification 5 February
2001/Accepted 14 February 2001
VlsE, the variable surface antigen of Borrelia
burgdorferi, contains two invariable domains located at the
amino and carboxyl terminal ends, respectively, and a central variable
domain. In this study, both immunogenicity and antigenic conservation
of the C-terminal invariable domain were assessed. Mouse antiserum to a
51-mer synthetic peptide (Ct) which reproduced the entire sequence of
the C-terminal invariable domain of VlsE from B.
burgdorferi strain B31 was reacted on immunoblots with
whole-cell lysates extracted from spirochetes of 12 strains
from the B. burgdorferi sensu lato species complex. The
antiserum recognized only VlsE from strain B31, indicating that
epitopes of this domain differed among these strains. When Ct was used
as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antigen, all of the seven
monkeys and six mice that were infected with B31 spirochetes produced a
strong antibody response to this peptide, indicating that the
C-terminal invariable domain is immunodominant. None of 12 monkeys and only 11 of 26 mice that were infected with strains other
than B31 produced a detectable anti-Ct response, indicating a limited
antigenic conservation of this domain among these strains. Twenty-six
of 33 dogs that were experimentally infected by tick inoculation
were positive by the Ct ELISA, while only 5 of 18 serum samples from
dogs clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease contained detectable
anti-Ct antibody. Fifty-seven of 64 serum specimens that were collected
from American patients with Lyme disease were positive by the Ct ELISA,
while only 12 of 21 European samples contained detectable
anti-Ct antibody. In contrast, antibody to the more conserved
invariable region IR6 of VlsE was present in all of these
dog and human serum samples.
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.5.3224-3231.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
C-Terminal Invariable Domain of VlsE Is Immunodominant but
Its Antigenicity Is Scarcely Conserved among Strains of Lyme
Disease Spirochetes
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Tulane Regional
Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, 18703 Three Rivers Rd., Covington, LA 70433. Phone: (504) 871-6221. Fax: (504) 871-6390. E-mail: philipp{at}tpc.tulane.edu.
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