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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 78(5), 2008, pp. 806-810
Copyright © 2008 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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SHORT REPORT


The Propensity of Different Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto Genotypes to Cause Disseminated Infections in Humans

Daniel E. Dykhuizen, Dustin Brisson*, Sabina Sandigursky, Gary P. Wormser, John Nowakowski, Robert B. Nadelman, AND Ira Schwartz
Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York; Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York

 

ABSTRACT

Lineages of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, can be characterized by distinct alleles at the outer surface protein C (ospC) locus. The lineages marked by ospC genotypes have been shown to be differentially invasive in different species of mammals, including humans; genotypes A, B, I, and K effectively disseminate to human blood and cerebrospinal fluid. In this report, we extend the sample of genotypes isolated from human blood to include genotypes N, H, C, M, and D, and rank each by their probability of disseminating from ticks to the blood of humans. Our results demonstrate that only some genotypes of B. burgdorferi present in ticks have a high propensity to disseminate in humans.

Received August 15, 2007. Accepted for publication January 11, 2008.

Acknowledgment: We thank Klara Hanincova for helpful comments.

Financial support: This study was supported by Public Health Service grants GM31912 (Daniel E. Dykhuizen) and AR41511 (Ira Schwartz).

* Address correspondence to Dustin Brisson, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Leidy 326 Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018. E-mail: dbrisson{at}sas.upenn.edu

Authors’ addresses: Daniel E. Dykhuizen, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794. Dustin Brisson, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Sabina Sandigursky and Ira Schwartz, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595. Gary P. Wormser, John Nowakowski, and Robert B. Nadelman, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595






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