Improved Bb immunoblot reported in last month's J Clin Microbio

September 4, 2005

J Clin Microbiol. 2005 Aug;43(8):3602-9.

Improvement of Lyme borreliosis serodiagnosis by a newly developed

recombinant immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM line immunoblot assay and

addition of VlsE and DbpA homologues.

Goettner G, Schulte-Spechtel U, Hillermann R, Liegl G, Wilske B,

Fingerle V.

Max von Pettenkofer-Institut fur Hygiene und Medizinische

Mikrobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen,

Pettenkoferstr. 9a, D-80336 Munich, Germany.

We developed and evaluated a recombinant Borrelia line immunoblot

assay based on 18 homologues of seven different antigens, i.e.,

p100, p58, p41i, BmpA, VlsE, OspC, and DbpA. Each recombinant

antigen can be detected separately and is distinct even from

homologues with identical molecular weights. This blot was compared

to the recently described recombinant Borrelia Western immunoblot

assay (U. Schulte-Spechtel, G. Lehnert, G. Liegl, V. Fingerle, C.

Heimerl, B. J. , and B. Wilske, J. Clin. Microbiol. 41:1299-

1303, 2003). To verify sensitivity and specificity, both blots were

evaluated for reactivity with Borrelia-specific immunoglobulin G

(IgG) and IgM antibodies with 85 sera from patients with different

manifestations of Lyme borreliosis and 110 controls. According to

European interpretation criteria for Borrelia Western blots, which

define a serum as positive when it recognizes at least two bands,

sensitivity increased significantly from 70.6% (Western blot) to

84.7% (line blot) for IgG (P = 0.042) and from 40.0% (Western blot)

to 73.8% (line blot) for IgM (P < 0.005). The increased sensitivity

for IgG detection is due to the new line blot technique, whereas the

improvement in detection of IgM is mainly achieved through

incorporation of the additional antigens. Notably, the recombinant

VlsE of Borrelia garinii strain PBi displayed the highest

sensitivity of all antigens tested for IgG detection and is also one

of the most useful antigens for IgM. Due to its excellent

sensitivity and specificity combined with ease of evaluation, this

line immunoblot assay offers a useful improvement in serodiagnosis

of Lyme borreliosis.

PMID: 16081885 [PubMed - in process]

Recommended Posts