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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, January 2001, p. 79-84, Vol. 8, No. 1
Immunology Laboratory, Department of
Research,1 and Division of Rheumatology,
Department of Pediatrics,3 A. I. duPont
Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware, and Thomas
Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania2
Received 26 July 2000/Returned for modification 20 September
2000/Accepted 19 October 2000
This study evaluated the effects of vaccination with OspA on the
use of serologic tests as aids in the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis. Sera from control and OspA-immunized mice and from OspA-immunized human
volunteers were tested for serologic reactivity to Borrelia burgdorferi. Testing was performed with samples obtained prior to
administration of vaccine and at 30 days following administration of an
initial and a second dose of OspA vaccine. The assays used to assess
serologic reactivity included an in-house-developed enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA), an in-house-developed Western blot assay,
two commercial Western blot tests, and a commercially available dot
blot assay. Data obtained from this study demonstrate that immunization
with the OspA vaccine will cause ELISA to yield positive results (as
reported previously) for the majority of vaccine recipients. Results
obtained from Western blot analysis indicate that vaccination with
recombinant OspA induces production of antibodies which bind to several
different borrelial proteins. The degree of reactivity detected by
Western blotting varied greatly between the three assays used. The
in-house assay showed the least reactivity, while one commercial
Western blot test actually yielded positive test results for infection
with B. burgdorferi. The usefulness of all three Western
blot assays for the diagnosis of potential infection in a vaccine
recipient is severely limited by the extensive reactivity caused by
vaccination alone. Antibodies produced in response to OspA vaccination
did not significantly affect the performance of the dot blot test;
thus, it could provide a reliable means to test for infection with
B. burgdorferi in OspA vaccine recipients.
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.1.79-84.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Effect of Immunization with Recombinant OspA on
Serologic Tests for Lyme Borreliosis
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of
Immunology, A. I. duPont Hospital for Children, 1600 Rockland Rd.,
Wilmington, DE 19899. Phone: (302) 651-6776. Fax: (302) 651-6881. E-mail: pfawcett{at}nemours.org.
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