Effect of immunization with recombinant OspA on serologic tests for lyme borreliosis

This study evaluated the effects of vaccination with OspA on the use of ser ologic tests as aids in the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis, Sera from contro l and OspA-immunized mice and from OspA-immunized human volunteers were tes ted for serologic reactivity to Borrelia burgdorferi, Testing was performed with samples obtained prior to administration of vaccine and at 30 days fo llowing administration of an initial and a second dose of OspA vaccine. The assays used to assess serologic reactivity included an in-house-developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), an in-house-developed Western bl ot assay, two commercial Western blot tests, and a commercially available d ot blot assay. Data obtained from this study demonstrate that immunization with the OspA vaccine will cause ELISA to yield positive results (as report ed previously) for the majority of vaccine recipients. Results obtained fro m Western blot analysis indicate that vaccination with recombinant OspA ind uces production of antibodies which bind to several different borrelial pro teins. The degree of reactivity detected by Western blotting varied greatly between the three assays used. The in-house assay showed the least reactiv ity, while one commercial Western blot test actually yielded positive test results for infection with B, burgdorferi. The usefulness of all three West ern blot assays for the diagnosis of potential infection in a vaccine recip ient is severely limited by the extensive reactivity caused by vaccination alone. Antibodies produced in response to OspA vaccination did not signific antly affect the performance of the dot blot test; thus, it could provide a reliable means to test for infection with B. burgdorferi in OspA vaccine r ecipients.