title: Use of recombinant OspC from Borrelia burgdorferi for serodiagnosis of early Lyme disease.
abstract: Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiologic agent of Lyme disease, is associated with an early and dominant humoral response to the spirochete's 23-kDa outer surface protein C (OspC). We have cloned and expressed OspC as a fusion protein in Escherichia coli and have shown that patient serum samples react with it in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (S. J. Padula, A. Sampieri, F. Dias, A. Szczepanski, and R. W. Ryan, Infect. Immun. 61:5097-5105, 1993). Now we have compared the detection of B. burgdorferi-specific immunoglobulin M antibodies in 74 individuals with culture-positive erythema migrans by a whole-cell ELISA, immunoblot, and the recombinant OspC (rOspC) ELISA. Seventy-six negative controls were also studied. With all of the tests, there was a statistically significant association between the duration of disease and the frequency of a positive result. With the rOspC ELISA, the predictive value of a positive test was 100% and the predictive value of a negative test was 74%. Similar results were obtained with the whole-cell ELISA and with the immunoblot using as the source of test antigen a strain of B. burgdorferi which expresses abundant levels of OspC. We conclude that the use of rOspC in an ELISA is a convenient, readily automated, and easily standardized test for the serodiagnosis of early Lyme disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington 06030.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Padula
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sampieri
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Craven
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood*; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012698:Serologic Tests
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; C079616:OspC protein