Maternal Antibodies Provide Bank Voles with Strain-Specific Protection against Infection by the Lyme Disease Pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Multistrain microbial pathogens often induce strain-specific antibody responses in their vertebrate hosts. Mothers can transmit antibodies to their offspring, which can provide short-term, strain-specific protection against infection. Few experimental studies have investigated this phenomenon for multiple strains of zoonotic pathogens occurring in wildlife reservoir hosts. The tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii causes Lyme disease in Europe and consists of multiple strains that cycle between the tick vector (Ixodes ricinus) and vertebrate hosts, such as the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). We used a controlled experiment to show that female bank voles infected with B. afzelii via tick bite transmit protective antibodies to their offspring. To test the specificit

SUBMITTER: Gomez-Chamorro A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6856323 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature