Residual brain infection in relapsing-Fever borreliosis.

Newsgroup Leader Katheen · medicine forum Guru Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 654

1: J Infect Dis. 2006 May 15;193(10):1451-8. Epub 2006 Apr 4. Related
Articles, Links
Click here to read
Residual brain infection in relapsing-Fever borreliosis.

Cadavid D, Sondey M, Garcia E, Lawson CL.

Department of Neurology and Neuroscience and Center for the Study
of Emerging Pathogens, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, USA. cadavidi@umdnj.edu.

Background. Neurological involvement is common in the spirochetal
infection relapsing fever (RF) in both humans and experimental animals.
RF is best known for antigenic variation caused by the sequential
expression of variable outer membrane lipoproteins of 2 sizes, variable
small (Vsp) and variable large (Vlp) proteins. Less understood is the
persistence of RF borreliae in the brain after they are cleared from
the blood, referred to as residual brain infection (RBI). Our goal was
to investigate the phenomenon of RBI in RF.Methods. We studied RBI in
immunocompetent mice by culturing blood and perfused brain samples 1
month after intraperitoneal inoculation with Borrelia turicatae
serotype 1 (Bt1). Mice deficient in Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2(-/-)) or
in B and T cells (scid) were included for comparison.Results. All scid
mice had persistent infection in blood and brain. RBI was found in 3
(19%) of 16 immunocompetent and TLR2(-/-) mice. RBI was caused by
either persistence of the original serotype (Bt1) or newly emerged Vsp
(n=1, renamed Bt3) or Vlp serotypes. The Vsp of Bt1 (Vsp1) and Bt3
(Vsp3) were 75% identical.Conclusions. RBI in RF is relatively frequent
and can occur by persistence of the original or newly emerged
serotypes.

PMID: 16619194 [PubMed - in process]

Google