An OspC-Specific Monoclonal Antibody Passively Protects Mice from Tick-Transmitted Infection by Borrelia burgdorferi B31

Abstract

A murine monoclonal antibody directed against Borrelia burgdorferi B31 outer surface protein C (OspC) antigen was generated by a method whereby borreliae were inoculated into the mouse via the natural transmission mode of tick feeding. Passive immunization with this antibody resulted in protection of C3H/HeJ and outbred mice from a tick-transmitted challenge infection. Immunofluorescence staining of borrelia cells indicated surface exposure of the OspC epitope reactive with the monoclonal antibody.

Epitope mapping of Borrelia burgdorferi OspC protein in homodimeric fold

“…The tertiary and/or quaternary structure of OspC and related epitopes accessibility seems to play a crucial part in borrelia dissemination and protectiveness of elicited antibodies. It has been proposed earlier, that only non‐denatured protein is able to elicit protective antibodies . The importance of preserved tertiary structure also supports the results of experiments with GST‐tag, enhancing the folding, fused to recombinant OspC.…”

The antiviral activity of antibodies in vitro and in vivo

“…Complement may enhance neutralization of opsonized C. trachomatis (Megran et al, 1988). Passive transfer of an antibody against an outer surface protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, which strongly stained nonpermeabilized B. burgdorferi cells, completely protected mice from challenge (Mbow et al, 1999). Protection against the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi by antibody, furthermore, has been correlated with antibodies that bind to living trypomastigotes in immunofluorescence (Heath et al, 1990).…”

Characterization of a unique borreliacidal epitope on the outer surface protein C ofBorrelia burgdorferi

“…Many outer surface proteins (Osps) have been identified on Borrelia spirochetes; the predominant ones are ospA, OspB and OspC (Ohnishi et al, 2001;Alverson et al, 2003). OspA and OspC have been studied for their protective capabilities (Fikrig et al, 1990(Fikrig et al, , 1992Schaible et al, 1990a;Preac-Mursic et al, 1992;Probert & LeFebvre, 1994;Gilmore et al, 1996;Bockenstedt et al, 1997;Mbow et al, 1999). OspA is expressed on spirochetes in the tick midgut prior to ingestion of a bloodmeal (de Silva et al, 1996).…”

“…OspC has been evaluated as a candidate for a Lyme disease vaccine in animal models using either recombinant OspC protein (Preac-Mursic et al, 1992;Probert & Le-Febvre, 1994;Gilmore et al, 1996;Bockenstedt et al, 1997;Mbow et al, 1999) or a DNA-based OspC vaccine (Scheiblhofer et al, 2003). It has been found to elicit protection in a strain-specific manner against challenges with B. burgdorferi when administered by needle inoculation or by natural transfer from infected ticks (Preac-Mursic et al, 1992;Probert & LeFebvre, 1994;Gilmore et al, 1996;Bockenstedt et al, 1997;Scheiblhofer et al, 2003;Mbow et al, 1999).…”