Possible effect of mutations on serological detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC major groups: An in-silico study

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creativework.keywords - en

Borrelia burgdorferi

Mutation

Lyme Disease

dc.contributor.author

Mechai, Samir

Coatsworth, Heather

Ogden, Nicholas H.

dc.date.accessioned

2023-11-08T19:33:15Z

dc.date.available

2023-11-08T19:33:15Z

dc.date.issued

2023-10

dc.description.abstract - en

The outer surface protein C (OspC) of the agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, is a major lipoprotein surface-expressed during early-phase human infections. Antibodies to OspC are used in serological diagnoses. This study explored the hypothesis that serological test sensitivity decreases as genetic similarity of ospC major groups (MGs) of infecting strains, and ospC A (the MG in the strain B31 used to prepare antigen for serodiagnosis assays) decreases. We used a previously published microarray dataset to compare serological reactivity to ospC A (measured as pixel intensity) versus reactivity to 22 other ospC MGs, within a population of 55 patients diagnosed by two-tier serological testing using B. burgdorferi s.s. strain B31 as antigen, in which the ospC MG is OspC A. The difference in reactivity of sera to ospC A and reactivity to each of the other 22 ospC MGs (termed ‘reactivity difference’) was the outcome variable in regression analysis in which genetic distance of the ospC MGs from ospC A was the explanatory variable. Genetic distance was computed for the whole ospC sequence, and 9 subsections, from Neighbour Joining phylogenetic trees of the 23 ospC MGs. Regression analysis was conducted using genetic distance for the full ospC sequence, and the subsections individually. There was a significant association between the reactivity difference and genetic distance of ospC MGs from ospC A: increased genetic distance reduced reactivity to OspC A. No single ospC subsection sequence fully explained the relationship between genetic distance and reactivity difference. An analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms supported a biological explanation via specific amino acid modifications likely to change protein binding affinity. This adds support to the hypothesis that genetic diversity of B. burgdorferi s.s. (here specifically OspC) may impact serological diagnostic test performance. Further prospective studies are necessary to explore the clinical implications of these findings.

dc.identifier.citation

Mechai S, Coatsworth H, Ogden NH. Possible effect of mutations on serological detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC major groups: An in-silico study. PLoS One. 2023 Oct 10;18(10):e0292741. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292741. PMID: 37815990; PMCID: PMC10564231.

dc.identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0292741

dc.identifier.issn

1932-6203

dc.identifier.pubmedID

37815990

dc.identifier.uri

https://open-science.canada.ca/handle/123456789/1280

dc.language.iso

en

dc.publisher

PLoS ONE

dc.rights - en

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

dc.rights - fr

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

dc.rights.uri - en

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

dc.rights.uri - fr

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.fr

dc.subject - en

Health

dc.subject - fr

Santé

dc.subject.en - en

Health

dc.subject.fr - fr

Santé

dc.title - en

Possible effect of mutations on serological detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC major groups: An in-silico study

dc.type - en

Article

dc.type - fr

Article

local.article.journalissue

10

local.article.journaltitle

PLoS ONE

local.article.journalvolume

18

local.peerreview - en

Yes

local.peerreview - fr

Oui

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