Abstract
The relapsing fever group Borrelia miyamotoi is an emerging tick-borne pathogen. Diagnosis of infection is currently mainly based on serological methods detecting antibodies against B. miyamotoi glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase (GlpQ). Here, we scrutinized the reliability of GlpQ as a diagnostic marker and compared the seroprevalence in different study populations and by applying various immunoblotting methods. Antibodies were detected in the sera of 7/53 hunters and in 1/11 sera of Lyme neuroborreliosis patients. Furthermore, 17/74 sera of persons with high concentrations of anti-Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (α-Bbsl) antibodies reacted strongly with B. miyamotoi GlpQ in immunoblots. The B. miyamotoi GlpQ seroprevalence was 7/50 in α-Bbsl negative persons. In healthy blood donors from commercial suppliers and from the Austrian Red Cross, seroprevalences were 5/14 and 10/35, respectively. Strikingly, two B. miyamotoi PCR-positive cases from Austria had negative GlpQ serology, indicating poor sensitivity. Finally, when we analyzed sera of dogs, we found α-B. miyamotoi GlpQ antibody seroprevalence in tick-free dogs (n = 10) and in tick-exposed dogs (n = 19) with 2/10 and 8/19, respectively. Thus, our results indicate that GlpQ-based B. miyamotoi serology holds neither specificity nor sensitivity.
Highlights
In 2011, reports from Russia and case reports from the United States, Europe and Japan associated human febrile disease with infection by B. miyamotoi [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
We previously reported the presence of B. miyamotoi in 1% of Austrian I. ricinus ticks [17]
We found the strongest reactions with E. coli total lysate, and milder ones with crude lysates of B. miyamotoi, B. turicatae, and B. afzelii
Summary
In 2011, reports from Russia and case reports from the United States, Europe and Japan associated human febrile disease with infection by B. miyamotoi [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. B. miyamotoi, a relapsing fever (RF) group Borrelia, is vectored by hard ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex, which is the vector of B. burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) spirochetes, to which the agents of Lyme borreliosis belong [11]. This unusual host for an RF Borrelia coined the term hard tick-borne relapsing fever (HTBRF) for this spirochetal disease [2]. This might have led to confusion with the agent of Lyme borreliosis in the early years and the delay of recognition of B. miyamotoi as a human pathogen [5]
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