1. Significant Improvement of the Recombinant Borrelia -Specific Immunoglobulin G Immunoblot Test by Addition of VlsE and a DbpA Homologue Derived from Borrelia garinii for Diagnosis of Early Neuroborreliosis
- Author
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Ulrike Schulte-Spechtel, Gisela Lehnert, Christiane Heimerl, Bettina Wilske, Volker Fingerle, Barbara J. B. Johnson, and G. Liegl
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Microbiology (medical) ,Lipoproteins ,Immunoblotting ,Spirochaetaceae ,medicine.disease_cause ,law.invention ,DEAD-box RNA Helicases ,Lyme disease ,Bacterial Proteins ,Borrelia burgdorferi Group ,law ,Borrelia ,medicine ,Humans ,Lyme Neuroborreliosis ,Borrelia burgdorferi ,Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures ,Antigens, Bacterial ,biology ,Escherichia coli Proteins ,RNA-Binding Proteins ,Bacteriology ,medicine.disease ,biology.organism_classification ,Antibodies, Bacterial ,Virology ,Recombinant Proteins ,Bacterial Typing Techniques ,Immunoglobulin G ,Recombinant DNA ,Borrelia garinii ,Neuroborreliosis ,RNA Helicases - Abstract
We investigated whether the recombinant Borrelia Western blot test previously described (B. Wilske, C. Habermann, V. Fingerle, B. Hillenbrand, S. Jauris-Heipke, G. Lehnert, I. Pradel, D. Rössler, and U. Schulte-Spechtel, Med. Microbiol. Immunol. 188: 139-144, 1999) can be improved by the addition of VlsE and additional DbpA and OspC homologues. By using a panel of sera from 36 neuroborreliosis patients and 67 control patients, the diagnostic sensitivity of the recombinant immunoblot test was significantly increased (86.1% versus 52.7%) without loss of specificity and was higher (86.1% versus 63.8%) than that of the conventional whole-cell lysate immunoblot test (U. Hauser, G. Lehnert, R. Lobentanzer, and B. Wilske, J. Clin. Microbiol. 35: 1433-1444, 1997). Improvement was mainly due to the presence of VlsE and DbpA.
- Published
- 2003
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