BORRELIACIDAL ANTIBODY-PRODUCTION AGAINST OUTER SURFACE PROTEIN-C OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI

Early Lyme borreliosis sera with significant titers of anti-outer surf ace protein C (OspC) borreliacidal antibodies were identified. Human a nti-OspC borreliacidal antibodies could be either IgM or IgG. Signific ant concentrations of borreliacidal activity were detected after vacci nation of mice with OspC, Detection of anti-OspC borreliacidal activit y was dependent on surface expression of OspC by Borrelia burgdorferi isolate 50772, The ability of OspC to induce borreliacidal antibodies in vivo and after vaccination offers another possible explanation for the ability of vaccination with OspC to protect against infection with B. burgdorferi, Furthermore, detection of anti-OspC borreliacidal ant ibodies, especially IgM antibodies, in early Lyme borreliosis sera pro vides additional evidence that borreliacidal antibody detection may be useful for the serodiagnosis of early Lyme borreliosis.