Immunological Responses to the Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia turicatae in Infected Rhesus Macaques: Implications for Pathogenesis and Diagnosis.
Infect Immun
; 87(4)2019 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30642902
ABSTRACT
The global public health impact of relapsing fever (RF) spirochetosis is significant, since the pathogens exist on five of seven continents. The hallmark sign of infection is episodic fever and the greatest threat is to the unborn. With the goal of better understanding the specificity of B-cell responses and the role of immune responses in pathogenicity, we infected rhesus macaques with Borrelia turicatae (a new world RF spirochete species) by tick bite and monitored the immune responses generated in response to the pathogen. Specifically, we evaluated inflammatory mediator induction by the pathogen, host antibody responses to specific antigens, and peripheral lymphocyte population dynamics. Our results indicate that B. turicatae elicits from peripheral blood cells key inflammatory response mediators (interleukin-1ß and tumor necrosis factor alpha), which are associated with preterm abortion. Moreover, a global decline in peripheral B-cell populations was observed in all animals at 14 days postinfection. Serological responses were also evaluated to assess the antigenicity of three surface proteins BipA, BrpA, and Bta112. Interestingly, a distinction was observed between antibodies generated in nonhuman primates and mice. Our results provide support for the nonhuman primate model not only in studies of prenatal pathogenesis but also for diagnostic and vaccine antigen identification and testing.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Relapsing Fever
/
Borrelia
/
Antibodies, Bacterial
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Infect Immun
Year:
2019
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States