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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 1999, p. 3990-3996, Vol. 37, No. 12
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Sensitive and Specific Serodiagnosis of Lyme Disease by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay with a Peptide Based on an Immunodominant Conserved Region of Borrelia burgdorferi VlsE

Fang Ting Liang,1 Allen C. Steere,2 Adriana R. Marques,3 Barbara J. B. Johnson,4 James N. Miller,5 and Mario T. Philipp1,*

Department of Parasitology, Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Tulane University Medical Center, Covington, Louisiana 70433;1 Division of Rheumatology, New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 021112; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 208923; Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado 805224; and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 900955

Received 30 June 1999/Returned for modification 12 August 1999/Accepted 19 August 1999

VlsE, the variable surface antigen of Borrelia burgdorferi, contains an immunodominant conserved region named IR6. In the present study, the diagnostic performance of a peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on a 26-mer synthetic peptide (C6) with the IR6 sequence was explored. Sensitivity was assessed with serum samples (n = 210) collected from patients with clinically defined Lyme disease at the acute (early localized or early disseminated disease), convalescent, or late disease phase. The sensitivities for acute-, convalescent-, and late-phase specimens were 74% (29 of 39), 85 to 90% (34 of 40 to 35 of 39), and 100% (59 of 59), respectively. Serum specimens from early neuroborreliosis patients were 95% positive (19 of 20), and those from an additional group of patients with posttreatment Lyme disease syndrome yielded a sensitivity of 62% (8 of 13). To assess the specificity of the peptide ELISA, 77 serum samples from patients with other spirochetal or chronic infections, autoimmune diseases, or neurologic diseases and 99 serum specimens from hospitalized patients in an area where Lyme disease is not endemic were examined. Only two potential false positives from the hospitalized patients were found, and the overall specificity was 99% (174 of 176). Precision, which was assessed with a panel of positive and negative serum specimens arranged in blinded duplicates, was 100%. Four serum samples with very high anti-OspA antibody titers obtained from four monkeys given the OspA vaccine did not react with the C6 peptide. This simple, sensitive, specific, and precise ELISA may contribute to alleviate some of the remaining problems in Lyme disease serodiagnosis. Because of its synthetic peptide base, it will be inexpensive to manufacture. It also will be applicable to serum specimens from OspA-vaccinated subjects.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Tulane University Medical Center, 18703 Three Rivers Rd., Covington, LA 70433. Phone: (504) 871-6221. Fax: (504) 871-6390. E-mail: philipp{at}tpc.tulane.edu.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 1999, p. 3990-3996, Vol. 37, No. 12
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. Clin. Microbiol. Rev.
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Copyright © 1999 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.