Raymond J Dattwyler

Lyme disease is the major tick-borne disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). Neurological involvement is common in all stages. In vivo expression of Bb antigens (Ags) and the immune response to them has not been well investigated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Upregulation of outer surface protein (Osp) C and concomitant downregulation of OspA before tick inoculation of the spirochete has been reported in skin and blood in animals. CSF OspA Ag in early disease suggests otherwise ...

Current serodiagnostic assays for Lyme disease are inadequate at detecting early infection due to poor sensitivity and nonspecificity that arise from the use of whole bacteria or bacterial proteins as assay targets; both targets contain epitopes that are cross-reactive with epitopes found in antigens of other bacterial species. Tests utilizing peptides that contain individual epitopes highly specific for Borrelia burgdorferi as diagnostic targets are an attractive alternative to current ...

The immunodominant proteins and glycoproteins of Borrelia burgdorferi were analyzed by one-dimensional (1D) and 2D gel electrophoresis. More than 100 polypeptide species could be detected on silver-stained 2D gels. Separation of sonic extracts of the organism by differential centrifugation (100,000 X g) revealed several of the major proteins to reside predominantly within the pellet fraction. The antigenicity of the individual polypeptides was determined by Western (immuno-) blot ...

Babesiosis is a tick-borne zoonosis caused by protozoans of the genus Babesia, apicomplexan parasites that replicate within erythrocytes. However, unlike related Plasmodium species, the pathogenesis of Babesia infection remains poorly understood. The primary etiological agent of babesiosis in the United States is B. microti. In healthy individuals, tick-transmitted infection with Babesia causes no specific clinical manifestations, with many having no symptoms at all. However, even in ...

The current standard for laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease in the United States is serologic detection of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a two-tiered testing algorithm; however, this scheme has limited sensitivity for detecting early Lyme disease. Thus, there is a need to improve diagnostics for Lyme disease at the early stage, when antibiotic treatment is highly efficacious. We examined novel and established antigen ...

Evidence-based guidelines for the management of patients with Lyme disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis (formerly known as human granulocytic ehrlichiosis), and babesiosis were prepared by an expert panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. These updated guidelines replace the previous treatment guidelines published in 2000 (Clin Infect Dis 2000; 31[Suppl 1]:1-14). The guidelines are intended for use by health care providers who care for patients who either have these ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine central nervous system (CNS) involvement in acutely disseminated Borrelia burgdorferi infection by measurement of borrelia-specific DNA using the polymerase chain-reaction (PCR) assay and to compare the results of this with standard serological tests.

DESIGN: Prospective study with laboratory investigators blinded to clinical data.

SETTING: Multicenter office practice with a central reference laboratory.

PATIENTS: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was collected from 12 ...

Lyme disease begins at the site of a tick bite, producing a primary infection with spread of the organism to secondary sites occurring early in the course of infection. A major outer surface protein expressed by the spirochete early in infection is outer surface protein C (OspC). In Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, OspC is highly variable. Based on sequence divergence, alleles of ospC can be divided into 21 major groups. To assess whether strain differences defined by ospC group are ...

BACKGROUND: Localized Lyme disease, manifested by erythema migrans, is usually treated with oral doxycycline or amoxicillin. Whether acute disseminated Borrelia burgdorferi infection should be treated differently from localized infection is unknown.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective, open-label, randomized, multicenter study comparing parenteral ceftriaxone (2 g once daily for 14 days) with oral doxycycline (100 mg twice daily for 21 days) in patients with acute disseminated B. ...

Yersinia pestis, one of history's deadliest pathogens, has killed millions over the course of human history. It has attributes that make it an ideal choice to produce mass casualties and is a prime candidate for use as a biological weapon. When aerosolized, Y. pestis causes pneumonic plague, a pneumonia that is 100% lethal if not promptly treated with effective antibiotics. Currently, there is no FDA approved plague vaccine. The current lead vaccine candidate, a parenterally administered ...

Current serologic Lyme disease tests use whole borrelia cells as the source of antigen. These assays are difficult to standardize and to optimize for sensitivity and specificity. To help solve these problems, we constructed a library of recombinant chimeric proteins composed of portions of key antigens of Borrelia burgdorferi. These proteins were then used to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We compared our assay with the most sensitive of three whole-cell borrelia assays. ...

The major outer surface membrane protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, OspA, is one of several antigens recognized by sera from some patients in the chronic phase of Lyme borreliosis. We have expressed the OspA open reading frame in Escherichia coli and generated a series of deletion constructs of the gene and expressed them as trpE fusion proteins in E. coli. These constructs were used to identify antibody-binding sites of both rabbit antiserum and mouse monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed ...