Direct Detection of Lyme Borrelia: Recent Advancement and Use of Aptamer Technology

Abstract

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (B. burgdorferi s.l.), which is predominantly spread by ticks, is the cause of Lyme disease (LD), also known as Lyme borreliosis, one of the zoonotic diseases affecting people. In recent years, LD has become more prevalent worldwide, even in countries with no prior records. Currently, Lyme Borrelia detection is achieved through nucleic acid amplification, antigen detection, microscopy, and in vitro culture. Nevertheless, these methods lack sensitivity in the early phase of the disease and, thus, are unable to confirm active infection. This review briefly discusses the existing direct detection methods of LD. Furthermore, this review also introduces the use of aptamer technology integrated with biosensor platforms to detect the Borrelia antigen. This aptamer technology could be explored using other biosensor platforms targeting whole Borrelia cells or specific molecules to enhance Borrelia detection in the future.

Keywords: Lyme disease; aptamer; biosensor; direct detection; tick-borne disease.

Figure 1

Differences between STTT and MTTT: Two-tier testing methods for LD diagnosis.

Figure 2

Direct detection method of Borrelia using isolated genetic material and soluble antigen in various samples. The biosensor detection diagram was modified from [54], which is open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.