Tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease-LD) is caused by pathogenic Borrelia spirochetes that is transmitted through bite of Ixodes ticks to humans and animals. In the Russian Federation, borreliosis registered with an index of 6-7 per 100,000 people annually. In reality, LD morbidity in Russia is much higher because Russian strains develop less erythematous rashes compared to North American strains, thus missed by physicians in most of the early cases, and current serology tests have insufficient sensitivity as well. The aim of this work was to improve the sensitivity and specificity of serology tests for LD in Russia using rationale-designed Borrelia antigens. It was anticipated that sensitivity of LD sero-diagnosis will be higher if antigen for test-systems are derived from a strain that is circulated in a geographical region of test application. A large portion of the Russian population lives in the Central region. Thus, effort has been made to create a serological test using antigens from Moscow region, Tula and Ul'janovsk areas. In this study we included wild strains (ultrasonic-treated spirochetes B. garinii H19, B. afzelii P1, B. afzelii P1H13, B. burgdorferi s.s. 39/40, B. burgdorferi s.s. B31), recombinant (expressed in E.coli DbpA, Bgp, Bbk B. garinii, and B. afzelii) antigens and some of their combinations were produced and tested against LD patients and donors serum collected in hospitals of Central regions of Russia by ELISA and Western blotting. Considering sensitivity and specificity, DbpA B. afzelii and DbpA B. garinii recombinant antigens were selected among all probed antigens for regional serology test. As long as DbpA B. afzelii and DbpA B. garinii antigens interacted with LD patient's serum in a complementary mode, it is possible to combine epitopes DbpA B. afzelii and B. garinii in a single antigen for improving sensitivity. We created recombinant fusion protein DbpA B. afzelii/B using dbpA genes from Russian isolates of B. afzelii and B. garinii in E. coli. Fusion DbpA A + G protein was then used for formulation of fast immunochromatographic serodiagnosis test (LF) in a "deep-stick" format. The trials of LF-test were conducted separately at Institute of Rheumatology Russian Academy of Medical Science (using 325 sera) and at the Borreliosis Reference Center of Ministry of Health RF (using 120 reference sera). The average sensitivity and specificity of LF-test was 80.5 and 100 %, respectively.
The review summarizes the original data concerning involvement of some genes participating in Phase I and Phase 2 of detoxification systems in the origin, progression and treatment efficiency of such common multifactorial diseases as endometriosis, bronchial asthma, alcoholic cirrhosis, habitual miscarriages, gestosis, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis etc. Of special theoretical and practical value of these studies is an identification of highly nonrandom association of particular functionally inferior alleles of the genes belonging to glutathione-S- transferase super-gene family (GSTM1 (0), GSTT1 (0), GSTPi (s) as well as N-acetyl transferase - NAT-2 (s) with these diseases. Thus molecular testing of these alleles might be recommended as feasible predictive test for personal predisposition evaluation, for estimation of remote prognosis and for the treatment strategy in at least some of these diseases. Somewhat about 5-7% of all population in the North-West of Russia possess the most unfavorable combinations of GST genes genotypes (GSTM10/0; GSTTI0/0, GSTPi s/s). Early identification of these individuals by means of genetic screening supplemented with subsequent adequate social and medical care should be considered as feasible social program for efficient prevention of these diseases at the national level. Relying on these data as well as on the polymorphism studies and common mutation identification of other genes the idea of Genetic Form for the pregnant women is suggested and briefly discussed. Implementation of new sophisticated and highly productive molecular techniques amenable for the widespread population gene polymorphism screening becomes highly advisable.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.