IFNgamma production in peripheral blood of early Lyme disease patients to hLFAalphaL (aa326-345).

Gary P Wormser,Maria JC Gomes-Solecki,Raymond J Dattwyler

doi:10.1186/1471-2474-3-25

Abstract

BackgroundIt has been proposed that outer surface protein A (OspA) of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto contains a T helper 1 (Th1) cell epitope that could play a role in an autoimmune response to hLFA1.MethodsWe used two peptides, hLFAαL (aa326-345) and Borrelia burgdorferi OspAB31 (aa164-183), as stimulating antigens to measure Th1 proinflammatory IFNγ cytokine production in peripheral blood of Lyme disease patients presenting with EM without history of arthritis, as well as in peripheral blood of healthy individuals.ResultsIFNγ responses to hLFA1 peptide were observed in 11 of 19 Lyme disease patients and in 3 of 15 healthy controls. In contrast, only 2 of 19 of the Lyme disease patients and none of the controls responded to the homologous OspAB31 peptide.ConclusionsIFNγ was produced in response to stimulation with peptide hLFAαL (aa326-345) in peripheral blood of 58% of patients with early Lyme disease without signs of arthritis, as well as in peripheral blood of 20% of healthy individuals, but not in response to stimulation with the homologous OspAB31 (aa164-183) peptide (p < 0.05). Our results suggest that reactivity to the hLFA1 peptide in peripheral blood may be the result of T cell degeneracy.

Highlights

It has been proposed that outer surface protein A (OspA) of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto contains a T helper 1 (Th1) cell epitope that could play a role in an autoimmune response to human leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 (hLFA1)
The production of IFNg in peripheral blood stimulated with borrelia whole cell sonicate antigen (WCS), hLFAaL peptide or OspAB31 peptide was evaluated
To confirm the performance of the Th1-IFNg assay, we evaluated the results obtained with the borrelia whole cell sonicate antigen (WCS) in both Lyme disease and healthy individuals (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

It has been proposed that outer surface protein A (OspA) of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto contains a T helper 1 (Th1) cell epitope that could play a role in an autoimmune response to hLFA1. Outer surface protein A (OspA) from B. burgdorferi sensu stricto contains a helper T cell epitope with a similar sequence to a segment in human leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 (hLFA1). Gross et al found that individuals with treatment resistant Lyme arthritis, but not other forms of arthritis, generated Th1IFNg responses to OspA, hLFA1 and their highly related peptide epitopes in synovial fluid.

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion