preview

Borrelia Burgdorferi Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease uses a verity of the outer surface proteins to establish the infection. There are two different mechanisms in which Borrelia uses to enter a host. One of them is when Borrelia feeds on blood, it regulates OspC, which inhibits antibody-mediated killing and CD4 T cell activation. Upon Borrelia reaches dermis it expresses adhesins, which are binding proteins to facilitate Borrelia dissemination. Another way is to penetrate the matrix and the endothelial monolayers via plasminogen. Borrelia lipoprotein OspA induces the innate immune response via TLR2. It proved that TLR2 is important during the course of the infection via studying mice lack of TLR2. The mice were unable to induce an immune response when it was infected with the Borrelia lipoprotein OspA. Moreover, other innate responses are found in patients sera such as CD14 which is the co-receptor of TLR2 and TLR4, TLR5 which recognizes flagellin and induce the pro-inflammatory response. Besides, the adaptive immune response to B. burgdorferi evokes both T-cell-independent and T-cell-dependent B cell responses. Furthermore, a recent study shows …show more content…

Beginning with the first approved vaccine, which was called LYMErix and was a recombinant vaccine against OspA, the outer surface antigen, with three dosages. However, later there were adverse reactions. Then, 2009 was a vaccine similar to the first one, but it took back for unknown reasons. The recent vaccine has a different direction. Dr. Marconi's is working on a vaccine based on OspC, not OspA. It was identified that OspC is necessary for establishing infection and innate immune resistance in mammals. Moreover, this antigen is not standing throughout the course of the infection. It is only during early infection, around 48 hours. Thus, timing to give a vaccine is

Get Access