Specific immune response to a synthetic peptide derived from outer surfaceprotein C of Borrelia burgdorferi predicts protective borreliacidal antibodies

In a previous study, we described the development of a new specific serodia gnostic test for Lyme disease involving enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay a nd;I synthetic peptide, OspC-I. The OspC-I peptide is derived from part of thr outer surface protein C (OspC) amino acid sequence of Borrelia burgdorf eri and is located in the region conserved among B. burgdorferi sensu stric tu or sensu late isolates. In this study, Eve demonstrate that sera contain ing antibodies against OspC-I from patients with early Lyme disease had bor reliacidal activity against isolates of three genospecies of Lyme disease s pirochete, B. burgdorferi B31, B. garinii HPI and B. afzelii HT61. However, the borreliacidal activity against B. burgdorferi, which has not been isol ated in Japan, was weaker than that against thr other species. Vaccination of mice with OspC-I induced the production of anti-OspC-I antibodies in ser um with borreliacidal activity. The immune mouse serum had significantly hi gher levels of borreliacidal activity against HPL and HT61, than against B3 1. Neutralization of borreliacidal activity with anti-IgM antibodies showed that the borreliacidal activity of anti-OspC-I antibodies in serum was due to IgM. Furthermore, mice vaccinated with OspC-I were protected against ch allenge with HP1 and HT61, but not fully protected against infection with B 31. These results suggest that OspC-I is not only a specific antigen for us e in serodiagnostic tests for Lyme disease, but is also a potential candida te for a Lyme disease vaccine in Japan. (C) 2000 Federation of European Mic robiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.