ORAL VACCINATION WITH AN ATTENUATED SALMONELLA-TYPHIMURIUM STRAIN EXPRESSING BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI OSPA PREVENTS MURINE LYME BORRELIOSIS

Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease. In the mo use model, protection is correlated with the development of antibodies to a major outer surface protein, OspA. In this study, we expressed O spA in an attenuated strain of Salmonella typhimurium and tested the e fficacy of the transformed strain in protecting against disease. We sh ow that mice inoculated by gavage developed high titers of anti-OspA a ntibodies and were protected against an intradermal challenge with the spirochete.