Lyme disease microbiology

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [2]

Overview

Borrelia burgdorferi the causative agent of Lyme disease (borreliosis). Magnified 400 times.

Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is caused by Gram negative spirochetal bacteria from the genus Borrelia, which has at least 37 known species, 12 of which are Lyme related, and an unknown number of genomic strains. Borrelia species known to cause Lyme disease are collectively known as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato.

Borrelia are microaerophillic and slow-growing—the primary reason for the long delays when diagnosing Lyme disease—and have been found to have greater strain diversity than previously estimated.[1] The strains differ in clinical symptoms and/or presentation as well as geographic distribution.[2]

Except for Borrelia recurrentis (which causes louse-borne relapsing fever and is transmitted by the human body louse), all known species are believed to be transmitted by ticks.[3]

Species and Strains

Until recently it was thought that only three genospecies caused Lyme disease (borreliosis): B. burgdorferi sensu stricto ( the predominant species in North America, but also present in Europe); B. afzelii; and B. garinii (both predominant in Eurasia). To date the complete genome of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto strain B31, B. afzelii strain PKo and B. garinii strain PBi is known. B. burgdorferi strain B31 was derived by limited dilutional cloning from the original Lyme-disease tick isolate derived by Alan Barbour. There are over 300 species or strains of Borrelia world wide with apx 100 in the U.S. and it is unknown how many cause lyme like sickness, but many of them may.

At present, diagnostic tests are based only on B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (the only species used in the U.S.), B. afzelii, and B. garinii.

Emerging Genospecies

  • B. valaisiana was identified as a genomic species from Strain VS116, and named B. valaisiana in 1997.[4] It was later detected by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in human cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) in Greece.[5] B. valaisiana has been isolated throughout Europe, as well east Asia.[6]

Newly discovered genospecies have also been found to cause disease in humans:

  • B. lusitaniae [7] in Europe (especially Portugal), North Africa and Asia.
  • B. bissettii [8][9] in the U.S. and Europe.

Additional B. burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies suspected of causing illness, but not confirmed by culture, include B. japonica, B. tanukii and B. turdae (Japan); B. sinica (China); and B. andersonii (U.S.). Some of these species are carried by ticks not currently recognized as carriers of Lyme disease.

The B. miyamotoi spirochete, related to the relapsing fever group of spirochetes, is also suspected of causing illness in Japan. Spirochetes similar to B. miyamotoi have recently been found in both I. ricinus ticks in Sweden and I. scapularis ticks in the U.S.[12][13]

B. lonestari

Apart from this group of closely related genospecies, additional Borrelia species of interest include B. lonestari, a spirochete recently detected in the Amblyomma americanum tick (Lone Star tick) in the U.S.[14] B. lonestari is suspected of causing STARI (Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness), also known as Masters disease in honor of its discoverer Ed Masters. The illness follows a Lone Star tick bite and clinically resembles Lyme disease, but sufferers usually test negative for Lyme.[15]There is currently no diagnostic test available for STARI/Masters, and no official treatment protocol, though antibiotics are generally prescribed.


Genomic characteristics

One of the most striking features of B. burgdorferi as compared with other eubacteria is its unusual genome, which is far more complex than that of its spirochetal cousin Treponema pallidum, the agent of syphilis.[16] The genome of B. burgdorferi includes a linear chromosome approximately one megabase in size, with 21 plasmids (12 linear and 9 circular) - by far the largest number of plasmids found in any known bacterium.[17] Genetic exchange, including plasmid transfers, contributes to the pathogenicity of the organism.[18] Long-term culture of B. burgdorferi results in a loss of some plasmids and changes in expressed protein profiles. Associated with the loss of plasmids is a loss in the ability of the organism to infect laboratory animals, suggesting that the plasmids encode key genes involved in virulence.

Chemical analysis of the external membrane of B. burgdorferi revealed the presence of 46% proteins, 51% lipids and 3% carbohydrates.[19]


Mechanisms of persistence

While B. burgdorferi is susceptible to a number of antibiotics in vitro, there are contradictory reports as to the efficacy of antibiotics in vivo. B. burgdorferi may persist in humans and animals for months or years despite a robust immune response and standard antibiotic treatment, particularly when treatment is delayed and dissemination widespread. Numerous studies have demonstrated persistence of infection despite antibiotic therapy.[20][21][22]

Various survival strategies of B. burgdorferi have been posited to explain this phenomenon,[23] including the following:

B. burgdorferi has been shown to invade a variety of cells, including endothelium,[26] fibroblasts,[27] lymphocytes,[28] macrophages,[29] keratinocytes,[30] synovium,[31][32] and most recently neuronal and glial cells. [33] By 'hiding' inside these cells, B. burgdorferi is able to evade the immune system and is protected to varying degrees against antibiotics,[34][35] allowing the infection to persist in a chronic state.

The existence of B. burgdorferi spheroplasts, which lack a cell wall, has been documented in vitro,[36][37][38][39] in vivo,[32][37][40] and in an ex vivo model.[41] The fact that energy is required for the spiral bacterium to convert to the cystic form[36] suggests that these altered forms have a survival function, and are not merely end stage degeneration products. The spheroplasts are indeed virulent and infectious, able to survive under adverse environmental conditions, and have been shown to revert back to the spiral form in vitro, once conditions are more favorable.[42][43]

A number of other factors make B. burgdorferi spheroplasts a key factor in the relapsing, chronic nature of Lyme disease. Compared to the spiral form, spheroplasts have dramatically reduced surface area for immune surveillance. They also express different surface proteins - another reason for seronegative disease (i.e. false-negative antibody tests), as current tests only look for antibodies to surface proteins of the spiral form. In addition, B. burgdorferi spheroplasts are generally not susceptible to the antibiotics traditionally used for Lyme disease. They have instead shown sensitivity in vitro to antiparasitic drugs such as metronidazole, [44] tinidazole, [45] and hydroxychloroquine, [46] to which the spiral form of B. burgdorferi is not sensitive.

Like the Borrelia that cause relapsing fever, B. burgdorferi has the ability to vary its surface proteins in response to immune attack.[23][47] This ability is related to the genomic complexity of B. burgdorferi, and is another way B. burgdorferi evades the immune system to establish a chronic infection.[48]

Complement inhibition, induction of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-10, and the formation of immune complexes have all been documented in B. burgdorferi infection.[23] Furthermore, the existence of immune complexes provides another explanation for seronegative disease (i.e. false-negative antibody tests of blood and cerebrospinal fluid), as studies have shown that substantial numbers of seronegative Lyme patients have antibodies bound up in these complexes.[49]

Advancing Immunology Research

The role of T cells in borrelia was first made in 1984,[50] the role of cellular immunity in active Lyme disease was made in 1986,[51] and long term persistence of T cell lymphocyte responses to B. burgdorferi as an "immunological scar syndrome" was hypothesized in 1990.[52] The role Th1 and interferon-gamma (INF-gamma) in borrelia was first described in 1995.[53] The cytokine pattern of Lyme disease, and the role of Th1 with down regulation of interleukin-10 (IL-10) was first proposed in 1997.[54]

Recent studies in both acute and antibiotic refractory, or chronic, Lyme disease have shown a distinct pro-inflammatory immune process. This pro-inflammatory process is a cell-mediated immunity and results in Th1 upregulation. These studies have shown a significant decrease in cytokine output of (IL-10), an upregulation of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Interleukin-12 (Il-12) and Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and disregulation in TNF-alpha predominantly.

New research has also found that chronic Lyme patients have higher amounts of Borrelia-specific forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) than healthy controls, indicating that regulatory T cells might also play a role, by immunosuppression, in the development of chronic Lyme disease. FoxP3 are a specific marker of regulatory T cells.[55] The signaling pathway P38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38 MAP kinase) has also been identified as promoting expression of proinflammatory cytokines from borrelia.[56][57]

The culmination of these new and ongoing immunological studies suggest this cell-mediated immune disruption in the Lyme patient amplifies the inflammatory process, often rendering it chronic and self-perpetuating, regardless of whether the borrelia bacterium is still present in the host, or in the absence of the inciting pathogen in an autoimmune pattern.[58]

References

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