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. 2003 Jul;10(4):573-8.
doi: 10.1128/cdli.10.4.573-578.2003.

C-terminal region of outer surface protein C binds borreliacidal antibodies in sera from patients with Lyme disease

Dean A Jobe  1 , Steven D Lovrich, Ronald F Schell, Steven M Callister
Affiliations

C-terminal region of outer surface protein C binds borreliacidal antibodies in sera from patients with Lyme disease

Dean A Jobe et al. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 2003 Jul.

Abstract

Borreliacidal antibodies specific for outer surface protein C (OspC) are induced shortly after infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. In this study, we identified the region of OspC recognized by immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG borreliacidal antibodies. Sera from patients with early Lyme disease were screened for borreliacidal activity specific for B. burgdorferi 50772 and OspC antibodies. Seven sera that contained similarly high titers of each response were then chosen randomly and adsorbed with OspC or a truncated OspC (OspC-Dra) containing the 50 amino acids nearest the carboxy terminus. Adsorption with OspC or OspC-Dra completely eliminated the borreliacidal activity in six (86%) of seven sera and significantly decreased the activity in the remaining serum (titer of 10,240 to 1,280). Moreover, OspC antibodies were no longer detected by OspC enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or in a Western blot that contained native OspC. The findings confirmed that sera from patients with early Lyme disease contain high concentrations of IgM or IgG borreliacidal antibodies that bind a conserved region of OspC.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
DNA and predicted amino acid sequences of OspC-Dra. This region corresponds to amino acids (aa) 161 to 210 of OspC.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Western blots of early Lyme disease serum before adsorption (lane A) and after adsorption with OspC (lane B) or OspC-Dra (lane C).
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Western blots of antibodies recovered from the OspC (lane A) and OspC-Dra (lane B) columns.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 4.
SDS-PAGE and Western blotting of IgM (lanes A) or IgG (lanes B) antibodies purified from an early Lyme disease serum.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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