Standardization of a Pan-Specific Test for the Diagnosis of Lyme Disease in Veterinary Medicine
Abstract
Lyme disease (LD) is the most prevalent tick borne disease in the US with a total of 22,572 confirmed human cases reported to CDC in 2010. LD is caused by the infection of a mammalian host with the bacterial pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi, through the bite of an infected tick. Currently, there is no pan-specific test available for the diagnosis of the disease. Our hypothesis is that a non-species specific competitive ELISA test, also known as pan- specific ELISA test, will help improving the diagnosis of LD not only in Veterinary Medicine but will also help evaluating the sero-prevalence of this disease in different species of animals. Our objectives for this project is to 1) evaluate the antibody level against B. burgdorferi whole cell lysates and the Borrelial recombinant proteins P66 and OspC of a collection of dog serum samples by traditional ELISA and 2) determine the immune-reactivity of Texan dogs serum samples to Borrelia by Immunoblot assay, so as to determine the cut off values for the ELISA assay, This evaluation will help establishing the basic parameters for the final competitive ELISA and will determine the validity of P66 as potential antigen to be use in the final assay. We will achieve our objectives by i) purification of OspC and P66 ii) evaluate the immune reactivity of the serum collection to P66 and OspC and Borrelia whole cell lysates by ELISA and by Immunoblot and iii) designate the starting conditions of the competitive ELISA for diagnostics of Lyme disease.
Citation
Mcgregor, Erin 1990- (2012). Standardization of a Pan-Specific Test for the Diagnosis of Lyme Disease in Veterinary Medicine. Honors and Undergraduate Research. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /154414.