ArticleInfection and immunity2015
Outer surface protein OspC is an antiphagocytic factor that protects Borrelia burgdorferi from phagocytosis by macrophages.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Polyvalent mRNA vaccine targeting outer surface protein C affords multi-strain protection against Lyme disease.NPJ vaccines · 2025Article
- Borrelia surface proteins: new horizons in Lyme disease diagnosis.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Review
- PTEN inhibits scavenger receptor-mediated phagocytosis of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.ImmunoHorizons · 2025Article
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- Assessment of the hypothetical protein BB0616 in the murine infection ofInfection and immunity · 2024Article
- A Fur family protein BosR is a novel RNA-binding protein that controls rpoS RNA stability in the Lyme disease pathogen.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Pathogenicity and virulence ofVirulence · 2023Review
- The Rrp2-RpoN-RpoS pathway plays an important role in the blood-brain barrier transmigration of the Lyme disease pathogen.Infection and immunity · 2023Article
- Differential Resistance ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Antibody Cross-Reactivity in Serodiagnosis of Lyme Disease.Antibodies (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Gac Is a Transcriptional Repressor of the Lyme Disease Spirochete's OspC Virulence-Associated Surface Protein.Journal of bacteriology · 2023Article
- Borrelia burgdorferi Outer Surface Protein C Is Not the Sole Determinant of Dissemination in Mammals.Infection and immunity · 2023Article
- Possible effect of mutations on serological detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC major groups: An in-silico study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Immune evasion strategies of major tick-transmitted bacterial pathogens.Trends in microbiology · 2023Review
- Maximum antigen diversification in a lyme bacterial population and evolutionary strategies to overcome pathogen diversity.The ISME journal · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Outer surface protein C (OspC) is one of the major lipoproteins expressed on the surface of Borrelia burgdorferi during tick feeding and the early phase of mammalian infection. OspC is required for B. burgdorferi to establish infection in both immunocompetent and SCID mice and has been proposed to facilitate evasion of innate immune defenses. However, the exact biological function of OspC remains elusive. In this study, we showed that the ospC-deficient spirochete could not establish infection in NOD-scid IL2rγ(null) mice that lack B cells, T cells, NK cells, and lytic complement. The ospC mutant also could not establish infection in anti-Ly6G-treated SCID and C3H/HeN mice (depletion of neutrophils). However, depletion of mononuclear phagocytes at the skin site of inoculation in SCID and C3H/HeN mice allowed the ospC mutant to establish infection in vivo. In phagocyte-depleted mice, the ospC mutant was able to colonize the joints and triggered neutrophilia during dissemination. Furthermore, we found that phagocytosis of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing ospC mutant spirochetes by murine peritoneal macrophages and human THP-1 macrophage-like cells, but not in PMN-HL60, was significantly higher than parental wild-type B. burgdorferi strains, suggesting that OspC has an antiphagocytic property. In addition, overproduction of OspC in spirochetes also decreased the uptake of spirochetes by murine peritoneal macrophages. Together, our findings provide evidence that mononuclear phagocytes play a key role in clearance of the ospC mutant and that OspC promotes spirochetes' evasion of macrophages during early Lyme borreliosis.
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