LymeNet Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 10

Volume: 7
Issue: 10
Date: 25-Oct-99

Table of Contents:

I. J INFECT DIS: Association of specific subtypes of Borrelia burgdorferi with hematogenous dissemination in early Lyme disease. II. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Isolation and species typing of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes from UK patients with erythema migrans. III. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Common ancestry of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato strains from North America and Europe. IV. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Infection with agents of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, lyme disease, and babesiosis in wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in Connecticut. V. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER

Newsletter:

*********************************************************************** * The National Lyme Disease Network * * http://www.LymeNet.org/ * * LymeNet Newsletter * ***********************************************************************

Volume 7 / Number 10 / 25-OCT-1999 INDEX

I. J INFECT DIS: Association of specific subtypes of Borrelia burgdorferi with hematogenous dissemination in early Lyme disease. II. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Isolation and species typing of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes from UK patients with erythema migrans. III. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Common ancestry of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato strains from North America and Europe. IV. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Infection with agents of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, lyme disease, and babesiosis in wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in Connecticut. V. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER

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I. J INFECT DIS: Association of specific subtypes of Borrelia burgdorferi with hematogenous dissemination in early Lyme disease. ---------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Wormser GP, Liveris D, Nowakowski J, Nadelman RB, Cavaliere LF McKenna D, Holmgren D, Schwartz I ORGANIZATION: Division of Infectious Diseases, New York Medical College, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA. REFERENCE: J Infect Dis 1999 Sep;180(3):720-5 ABSTRACT:

To investigate whether genetic diversity of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto may affect the occurrence of hematogenous dissemination, 104 untreated adults with erythema migrans from a Lyme disease diagnostic center in Westchester County, New York, were studied. Cultured skin isolates were classified into 3 groups by a polymerase chain reaction amplification and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. A highly significant association between infecting RFLP type in skin and the presence of spirochetemia was found (P<.001). The same association existed for the presence of multiple erythema migrans lesions (P=.045), providing clinical corroboration that hematogenous dissemination is related to the genetic subtype of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto. There were no significant associations between RFLP type and seropositivity or clinical symptoms and signs except for a history of fever and chills (P=.033). These results suggest that specific genetic subtypes of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto influence disease
pathogenesis. Infection with different subtypes of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto may help to explain differences in the clinical presentation of patients with Lyme disease.

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II. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Isolation and species typing of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes from UK patients with erythema migrans. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Robertson J, Murdoch S, Foster L, Green S ORGANIZATION: Lyme Disease Reference Unit, Public Health Laboratory, Southampton General Hospital, UK. [email protected] REFERENCE: Eur J Epidemiol 1999 May;15(5):499-500 ABSTRACT:

Skin biopsies taken from UK cases of erythema migrans rash were cultured for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Reverse line blotting was used to type the infecting genospecies in PCR-positive cultures and biopsies. B. garinii or B. afzelii was identified in 56% (5/9) of biopsies/cultures tested. All patients were tested by conventional serology. PCR confirmed infection in two patients where serological testing failed to detect antibody.

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III. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Common ancestry of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato strains from North America and Europe. --------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Postic D, Ras NM, Lane RS, Humair P, Wittenbrink MM, Baranton G ORGANIZATION: Unite de Bacteriologie Moleculaire et Medicale, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. [email protected] REFERENCE: J Clin Microbiol 1999 Sep;37(9):3010-2 ABSTRACT:

Ten atypical European Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Borrelia spp.) strains were genetically characterized, and the diversity was compared to that encountered among related Borrelia spp. from North America. Phylogenetic analyses of a limited region of the genome and of the whole genome extend existing knowledge about borrelial diversity reported earlier in Europe and the United States. Our results accord with the evidence that North American and European strains may have a common ancestry.

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IV. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Infection with agents of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, lyme disease, and babesiosis in wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in Connecticut. --------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Stafford KC 3rd, Massung RF, Magnarelli LA, Ijdo JW, Anderson JF ORGANIZATION: The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06504, USA. [email protected] REFERENCE: J Clin Microbiol 1999 Sep;37(9):2887-92 ABSTRACT:

White-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus, were captured in southern Connecticut during 1997 and 1998 to determine the prevalence of infections caused by granulocytic Ehrlichia sp., Borrelia burgdorferi, and Babesia microti. Of the 50 mice captured and recaptured, 25 of 47 (53.2%) and 23 of 48 (47.9%) contained antibodies to the BDS or NCH-1 Ehrlichia strains, respectively, as determined by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) staining methods. The majority (83.3%) of 48 mice also contained antibodies to B. burgdorferi, as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Moreover, 20 of 26 (76.9%) contained antibodies to B. microti by IFA staining methods. In nested PCR tests using the 16S rRNA gene, the DNA of the human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) agent was detected in 17 of 47 mice (36.2%), but only 4 (23.5%) of these 17 mice were PCR positive at each capture. Antibody-positive reactions to granulocytic Ehrlichia sp. organisms were detected in 17 of 23 (73. 9%) of the PCR-positive mice. The sequences from PCR
products from nine positive blood samples were identical to the HGE agent. Ehrlichia spp. were cultured from three of five mice captured in April 1998, including one that was PCR positive in April 1997. In addition, 2 of 14 larval Ixodes scapularis pools, which were attached to two PCR-positive mice, contained DNA of the HGE agent. A high percentage of white-footed mice are infected or have been infected naturally by the HGE agent with low-level persistent infection or frequent reinfection in some individual mice. However, the changes noted in the presence of DNA and antibodies in repeated blood and serum samples from individual mice over several months of field collection suggests that infection with granulocytic Ehrlichia is transient in most wild

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V. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For the most current information on LymeNet subscriptions, contributions, and other sources of information on Lyme disease, please refer to: http://newsletter.lymenet.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the LymeNet newsletter, send a message to: [email protected] On the first line of the message, write: unsub lymenet-l ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LymeNet - The Internet Lyme Disease Information Source ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor-in-Chief: Marc C. Gabriel <[email protected]> FAX (for contributions ONLY): 908-789-0028 Contributing Editors: Carl Brenner <[email protected]> John Setel O'Donnell <[email protected]> Frank Demarest <[email protected]>
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