ANTITICK ANTIBODY IN LYME DISEASE RESEARCH

莱姆病是美国最常见的病媒传播疾病。 它是由螺旋体，伯氏疏螺旋体，并传播到 美国东北部的人类被一种叫达米尼硬蜱的北方鹿所感染 滴答 在世界范围内，这些和其他蜱是最重要的 动物传染病的食血节肢动物媒介， 其次是蚊子，作为传染性病原体的载体， 人类 研究表明，蜱虫叮咬很难治愈。 承认，而且经常不被承认。 无法识别蜱虫 叮咬是一种阻碍预防疾病， 流行病学调查 接触蜱虫的生物标志物将 因此在莱姆病危险因素的流行病学研究中具有实用性 和预防疾病。 大量的文献资料 宿主会对蜱产生复杂的免疫反应， 证明实验室动物产生抗体， I的组成部分。dammini唾液和最近的研究表明， 蜱唾液腺蛋白的抗体可能是一种有用的生物 暴露于蜱虫的标志物。 本提案的总体目标是 验证蜱暴露的生物标志物，抗蜱唾液腺 蛋白抗体（ATA）在人血清中的作用，并显示这种抗体的效用。 莱姆病流行病学研究中的标志物。 几个外地 流行病学研究和旨在优化ELISA的实验室实验 测定条件和鉴定I. 包括引发抗体应答的dammini唾液。 的目标 基于现场的研究是为了建立灵敏度，特异性， ATA在近期出现蜱虫的工人中的阳性预测值 咬，遵循ATA在这些工人中的发展时间过程 （动力学），检查人类对 抗原，并评估ATA作为结局指标的使用（依赖于 变量）的蜱暴露，首先在观察性流行病学研究， 然后在一项氯菊酯在户外工作者中的随机对照试验中。

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. It is caused by the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, and is transmitted to humans in the northeast United States by Ixodes dammini, the northern deer tick. Worldwide, these and other Ixodid ticks are the most important hematophagous arthropod vectors of infectious diseases to animals and second in importance, to mosquitos, as vectors of infectious pathogens to humans. Studies have demonstrated that tick bites are difficult to recognize and often go unrecognized. This inability to recognize tick bites is a hindrance to the prevention of the disease and to its epidemiologic investigation. Biological markers of exposure to ticks would thus have utility in epidemiologic studies of risk factors for Lyme disease and in the prevention of the disease. A large body of literature documents that hosts develop complex immunologic reactions to ticks; it has been demonstrated that laboratory animals produce antibodies to several components of I. dammini saliva and recent studies suggest that human antibodies to tick salivary gland proteins may be a useful biological marker of exposure to ticks. The overall goal of this proposal is to validate a biological marker of tick exposure, anti-tick salivary gland protein antibody (ATA) in human serum, and to show the utility of such a marker in epidemiologic studies of Lyme disease. Several field-based epidemiologic studies, and laboratory experiments aimed at optimizing ELISA conditions for the assays and identifying specific protein components of I. dammini saliva that elicit antibody response, are included. The goals of the field-based studies are to establish the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of ATA in workers presenting with a recent tick bite, follow the time course of development of ATA in such workers (kinetics), examine the individual variability of human responses to the antigen, and evaluate the use of ATA as an outcome measure (dependent variable) of tick exposure, first in observational epidemiologic studies, then in a randomized controlled trial of permethrin in outdoor workers.