ArticleParasites & vectors2016
Virulence of the Lyme disease spirochete before and after the tick bloodmeal: a quantitative assessment.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluation of EcoCRM, virus-like particles, and mRNA as vaccine platforms against Borrelia burgdorferi.Vaccine · 2026Article
- A Lyme disease mRNA vaccine targetingMolecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2025Article
- Hitchhiker's Guide toJournal of bacteriology · 2024Review
- Frequency of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia spp., and coinfections in Ixodes ricinus ticks collected from dogs and cats in Germany.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Article
- Coupled induction of prophage and virulence factors during tick transmission of the Lyme disease spirochete.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Blocking Borrelia burgdorferi transmission from infected ticks to nonhuman primates with a human monoclonal antibody.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2021Article
- DksA-dependent regulation of RpoS contributes to Borrelia burgdorferi tick-borne transmission and mammalian infectivity.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- Non-anticoagulant Heparin as a Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Prevents Lyme Disease Infection.ACS infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Lyme Disease Frontiers: ReconcilingPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Tracking ofInfection and immunity · 2019Article
- The RpoS Gatekeeper inFrontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
- Recent strategies for the diagnosis of early Lyme disease.Science progress · 2018Review
- Infection history of the blood-meal host dictates pathogenic potential of the Lyme disease spirochete within the feeding tick vector.PLoS pathogens · 2018Article
- The Nucleotide Excision Repair Pathway Protects Borrelia burgdorferi from Nitrosative Stress in Ixodes scapularis Ticks.Frontiers in microbiology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBorrelia burgdorferi, the tick-transmitted agent of Lyme disease, adapts to different environments as it cycles between an arthropod vector and vertebrate host. Signals encountered during nymphal tick feeding prior to transmission activate a regulon that is controlled by the alternative sigma factors RpoN and RpoS, which are required for mammalian infection. The ingested bloodmeal also provides nutrients that stimulate spirochete replication. Although the influence of tick feeding on spirochete growth and gene expression is well documented, a quantitative assessment of spirochete virulence before and after tick feeding has not been made.
methodsHomogenates were prepared from unfed and fed infected Ixodes scapularis nymphs that had acquired B. burgdorferi as larvae. Serially diluted tick homogenates were needle-inoculated into mice to determine the infectious dose of tick-derived spirochetes before and after the bloodmeal. Mouse infection was assessed by sero-reactivity with B. burgdorferi whole cell lysates on immunoblots and attempted isolation of spirochetes from mouse tissues. Viable spirochetes in tick-derived inocula were quantified by colony formation in solid media.
resultsWe found that an inoculum containing as many as 10(4) B. burgdorferi from unfed ticks is largely non-infectious, while the calculated ID50 for spirochetes from fed ticks is ~30 organisms. Engineered constitutive production of the essential virulence factor OspC by spirochetes within unfed ticks did not confer an infectious phenotype.
conclusionConditional priming of B. burgdorferi during tick feeding induces changes in addition to OspC that are required for infection of the mammalian host.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.