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pubmed:abstractText |
A Lyme disease vaccine, based on the Borrelia burgdorferi lipoprotein OspA, has recently undergone phase III trials in humans. The results of one of these trials indicate that vaccine efficacy positively correlates with anti-OspA antibody titer. Spirochete killing within the tick vector midgut, upon which vaccine efficacy appears to depend, may occur chiefly via a mechanism that involves antibody alone, as it has been reported that complement is degraded by tick saliva decomplementing factors. We compared the in vitro killing efficiencies of anti-OspA antibody elicited in rhesus monkeys by the OspA vaccine, in the presence and in the absence of monkey complement. Killing in the absence of complement was between 14 and 3,800 times less efficient than with complement present, depending on the spirochete strain. The relative inefficiency of the complement-independent killing mechanism by anti-OspA antibody may explain why OspA vaccine efficacy is critically dependent on antibody titer.
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pubmed:affiliation |
Department of Parasitology, Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Tulane University Medical Center, Covington, Louisiana 70433, USA.
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pubmed:publicationType |
Journal Article,
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.,
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
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