BORRELIABAKTEERI

[Bb]

Lähettäjä: Soijuv Lähetetty: 13.11.2004 20:53

Tutkijat ovat saaneet selville miten borreliabakteeri tunkeutuu punkin elimistöön. Löytö saattaa parantaa mahdollisuuksia selvittää bakteerin elinkaarta, borrelioosin hoitoa ja diagnosointia.


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 111204.php

Public release date: 12-Nov-2004
[ Print This Article | Close This Window ]

Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University

Lyme disease receptor identified in tick guts
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a Lyme disease
receptor called TROSPA that is used by disease agents to invade ticks.
Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease in the United States, is
caused by spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which also cause
arthritis in humans. The purpose of the study, published November 12 in the
journal Cell, was to identify how Lyme disease pathogens survive inside
ticks.

"We identified a receptor inside the tick gut that the spirochete bacteria
use to colonize or invade ticks," said principal investigator Erol Fikrig,
M.D., professor of internal medicine/rheumatology and in the Section of
Microbial Pathogenesis, and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at
Yale School of Medicine. "When we eliminated or blocked the receptor in the
ticks, they were no longer able to carry the Lyme disease agent Borellia
burgforferi."

"This opens up potential new avenues to disrupt the Borellia's life cycle
and offers strategies for improving diagnosis and treatment of Lyme
disease," Fikrig added.

To characterize the Lyme disease receptor, the team cloned the gene for the
receptor from ticks. After they expressed the purified receptor gene, they
showed that the Lyme disease agent Borellia burgforferi binds to the
receptor. "When we blocked the receptors with antibodies or when we used RNA
interference to knock the receptor out of the ticks, they no longer carried
Borellia burgforferi," said Fikrig.

"We are excited to learn more about the life cycle of this important
pathogen," Fikrig added. "This information can also be used to study other
vector-borne diseases such as West Nile virus and Malaria," Fikrig added.

Other authors on the study included Utpal Pal, Xin Li, Tian Wang, Ruth R.
Montgomery, Nandhini Ramamoorthi, Aravinda M. deSilva, Fukai Bao, Xiaofeng
Yang, Marc Pypaert, Deepti Pradhan, Fred S. Kantor, Sam Telford and John F.
Anderson.

Citation: Cell, No. 19 Volume 4, November 12, 2004.