Lyme evading the immune system

Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20970929&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Binding of complement factor H is crucial for the resistance of
Borrelia to complement-mediated lysis. This study was aimed to
assess the correlation between the expression of fH binding
proteins (FHBPs) during the early phase of infection (48h after
the entry of Borrelia into the blood circulation) and complement
resistance of the Borrelia genus. As expected, B. afzelii, B.
burgdorferi sensu stricto and B. garinii (Serotype 4, PBi) showed
resistance to complement mediated lysis when incubated with human
and dog complement, which coincided with the significantly higher
expression (P<0.05) of the FHBPs.
Similarly, B. coriaceae showed resistance to cattle complement.
In non-reservoir hosts borreliae failed to induce expression of
FHBPs within 48h of complement challenge, and did not survive. It
is important to note that not only the expression of FHBP but
also their binding to fH is required for borrelial resistance to
the complement. fH binding may depend on the coiled-coil (CC)
motifs observed in the FHBPs, especially at the C terminus. A
loss of the C-terminal CC motif in BgCRASP-1 of SKT-1 strain was
found in in-silico CC prediction, and may be coupled with SKT-1’s
inability to bind factor H and evade complement-mediated attack.
In contrast, the C-terminal CC motif was observed (P
– 1.0) in BgCRASP-1 of PBi that may contributed to its factor H
binding and human complement resistance. Copyright (c) 2010
Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.