BORRELIATESTI ELISA

[Bb]

Lähettäjä: Soijuv Lähetetty: 15.9.2004 10:53

Artikkelin mukaan borrelioosidiagnoosin vahvistamisessa verikokeista ei juuri ole hyötyä!! Eli diagnoosi tehdään lähinnä sairaushistorian ja oireiden perusteella. Tämä paranneltu versio ELISA-testistä "saattaa parantaa borrelioosin diagnosointia aiempaa ELISA-testiä paremmin" (suom. huom. mikä ei ole todennäköisesti riittävästi).


Advances in tick-borne disease diagnosis

Although the clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) are still routinely based on a history and examination (with serologic testing generally not useful), the specificity of tests continues to improve.

Two new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been developed, with preliminary results recently published.1,2

And a new diagnostic technique bolsters a theory postulating an autoimmune disease reaction as the cause for the chronic musculoskeletal and nervous system symptoms seen in Lyme disease.3

The new ELISA test that detects Borrelia burgdorferi-specific immune complexes in serum may enable the diagnosis of Lyme disease earlier than conventional antibody tests.1

Because patients who are treated early have a better chance of cure, this test, which can be used before seroconversion occurs, may increase treatment efficacy.

Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, published the results of the potential test in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The presence and concentration of antibodies to the Ehrlichia species of bacteria can be detected by another ELISA test.2

The technique, developed by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, uses recombinant HGE-44 antigens to obtain results with a specificity of 98%.

A new technique developed by the National Institutes of Health uses a positional scanning peptide combinational library to aid identification of microbial and cross-reactive host epitopes of B burgdorferi.3

It enables definition of antigen reactivity without knowing what protein elicited the T-cell response. This technique has shown that Lyme disease pathology is most likely consistent with the immune response mechanism.

1. Schutzer SE, Coyle PK, Reid P, et al. Borrelia burgdorferi-specific immune complexes in acute Lyme disease. JAMA. 1999;282:1942-1946.

2. Ijdo JW, Wu C, Magnarelli LA, et al. Serodiagnosis of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis by a recombinant HGE-44-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. J Clin Microbiol. 1999;37:3540-3544.

3. Hemmer B, Gran B, Zhao Y, et al. Identification of candidate T-cell epitopes and molecular mimics in chronic Lyme disease. Nat Med. 1999;5:1375-1382.