Agglutination of Borreliella burgdorferi by Transmission-Blocking OspA Monoclonal Antibodies and Monovalent Fab Fragments.

ABSTRACT: Lyme disease vaccines based on recombinant Outer surface protein A (OspA) elicit protective antibodies that interfere with tick-to-host transmission of the disease-causing spirochete Borreliella burgdorferi. Another hallmark of OspA antisera and certain OspA monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) is their capacity to induce B. burgdorferi agglutination in vitro, a phenomenon first reported more than 30 years ago but never studied in molecular detail. In this report, we demonstrate that transmission-blocking OspA MAbs, individually and in combination, promote dose-dependent and epitope-specific agglutination of B. burgdorferi. Agglutination occurred within minutes and persisted for hours. Spirochetes in the core of the aggregates exhibited evidence of outer membrane (OM) s

SUBMITTER: Frye AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9476992 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature