Straubinger

[Guest guest]

On Sunday, October 16, 2005, at 11:06 PM, wrote:

> Re blood PCR, check the Straubinger article upthread. Blood PCR was

> almost always negative in infected dogs.

You got me looking up Straubinger. What's the story with this one. If

useful, why not in use? Or is it and I just don't know about it?

J Infect Dis. 2001 Oct 1;184(7):870-8. Epub 2001 Aug 30. Related

Articles, Links

 

Antibody response to IR6, a conserved immunodominant region of the VlsE

lipoprotein, wanes rapidly after antibiotic treatment of Borrelia

burgdorferi infection in experimental animals and in humans.

Philipp MT, Bowers LC, Fawcett PT, s MB, Liang FT, Marques AR,

PD, Purcell JE, Ratterree MS, Straubinger RK.

Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health

Sciences Center, Covington, Louisiana 70433, USA. Philipp@...

Invariable region (IR)(6), an immunodominant conserved region of VlsE,

the antigenic variation protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, is currently

used for the serologic diagnosis of Lyme disease in humans and canines.

A longitudinal assessment of anti-IR(6) antibody levels in B.

burgdorferi-infected rhesus monkeys revealed that this level diminished

sharply after antibiotic treatment (within 25 weeks). In contrast,

antibody levels to P39 and to whole-cell antigen extracts of B.

burgdorferi either remained unchanged or diminished less. A

longitudinal analysis in dogs yielded similar results. In humans, the

anti-IR(6) antibody titer diminished by a factor of > or =4 in

successfully treated patients and by a factor of <4 in

treatment-resistant patients. This result suggests that the

quantification of anti-IR(6) antibody titer as a function of time

should be investigated further as a test to assess response to Lyme

disease therapy or to determine whether a B. burgdorferi infection has

been eliminated.

PMID: 11550127 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]