Microfluidic Assays for Probing Neutrophil-Borrelia Interactions in Blood During Lyme Disease.

ABSTRACT: Human neutrophils are highly sensitive to the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the agent of Lyme disease (LD), in tissues. Although Bb is also found in the blood of LD patients, far less is known about how neutrophils respond to Bb in the presence of blood. In this study, we employed microfluidic tools to probe the interaction between human neutrophils and Bb and measured the activation of human neutrophils in blood samples from patients. We found that neutrophils migrate vigorously toward Bb in the presence of serum, and this process was complement-dependent. Preventing complement factor 5 cleavage or blocking complement receptors decreased neutrophil's ability to interact with Bb. We also found that spiking Bb directly into the blood from healthy donors induced spontaneous neutroph

SUBMITTER: Muldur S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8448788 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature