Success on the vaccine front.Vaccination with either of two specific proteins isolated from Borrelia burgdorferi Borrelia burg·dor·fe·ri n. A spirochete causing Lyme disease in humans. Borrelia burgdorferi The spirochete agent of Lyme disease, which contains several outer membrane proteins and a highly immunogenic flagellar , the bacterium that causes Lyme disease Lyme disease, a nonfatal bacterial infection that causes symptoms ranging from fever and headache to a painful swelling of the joints. The first American case of Lyme's characteristic rash was documented in 1970 and the disease was first identified in a cluster at , can protect mice from the infection, researchers from Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was have found. The vaccines can also prevent ticks from spreading the disease, they report. The investigators, led by Erol Fikrig, injected mice with either OspA or OspB, two proteins from the outer wall of B. burgdorferi. When they allowed young deer ticks deer tick n. Any of several ticks of the genus Ixodes that are parasitic on deer and other animals and transmit the infectious agents of febrile diseases, such as Lyme disease. infected with the bacteria to feed on the mice, they discovered that the mice remained uninfected. Moreover, studies revealed that ingested in·gest tr.v. in·gest·ed, in·gest·ing, in·gests 1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption. See Synonyms at eat. 2. blood from the mice killed all of the B. burgdorferi in the guts of the ticks, halting the dissemination of the disease. Fikrig and his colleagues conclude that either protein might constitute an effective vaccine against Lyme disease. "They're both effective in our initial experiments," he says. But he cautions that the proteins vary among different strains of B. burgdorferi, so the best vaccine might consist of a combination of various OspA or OspB proteins. Fikrig says his group hopes to begin clinical trials of a Lyme vaccine within the next three years. They also plan to test whether baits soaked with an oral form of the vaccine might reduce the number of infected mice in the wild. |
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