Studies to improve the ability of culture medium to recover Borrelia miyamotoi

[摘要] The relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi was recently detected in hard-bodiedIxodes scapularis ticks that also transmit Lyme disease-causing B. burgdorferi. As aresult, methods of laboratory diagnosis that rely on detecting specific antibody responsesare likely confounded as the spirochetes share similar proteins. Efforts to betterunderstand this possibility have been hampered due to the absence of a medium capableof recovering B. miyamotoi from a human who contracted the illness in the United States.In this study, MKP-F culture medium typically used to cultivate a laboratory-acclimatedB. miyamotoi isolate was significantly improved by eliminating gelatin and adding 10%human serum (MKP-H). However, the increased efficacy was not sufficient to recoverthe spirochetes from a patient who contracted the spirochetes. In a preliminaryexperiment, it was also confirmed that patients infected with B. miyamotoi produceantibodies that react commonly with multiple B. burgdorferi proteins, including the C6peptide thought to be highly specific for Lyme disease spirochetes, which highlights thenecessity of continued effort to improve the efficacy of laboratory culture mediumsufficient to recover B. miyamotoi spirochetes from local patients.

[发布机构] University of Wisconsin

[效力级别] Borrelia Miyamotoi

[关键词] Microbiology;Borrelia Miyamotoi