LYME DISEASE--STUDY OF THE ETIOLOGICAL AGENT

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：莱姆的重要性 疾病作为一个新出现的公共卫生问题是众所周知的。 疾病 可以是急性或慢性的性质和疾病谱 这种感染引起的症状继续扩大。 莱姆 疾病已经得到公众和医疗的关注， 临床诊断和目前可用的局限性 实验室诊断测试已经变得明显。 目前有三名 B的基因种burgdorferi被认为是莱姆负责 疾病 然而，在临床上观察到了差异。 莱姆病的表现，似乎有一些相关性， 一些基因物种的临床表现。 疾病 症状，无论是急性还是慢性， 活的螺旋体的存在，尽管它们的数量很少。 小 已知这些螺旋体的毒力因子， 致病机制。 其他表征方法 需要对各种分离株进行鉴定， 了解这一新兴疾病的发病机制和流行病学， 疾病 拟议研究的总体目标是 伯氏疏螺旋体毒力因子鉴定： I.鉴定与毒力相关的质粒编码基因， 阐明它们在B.burgdorferi中功能 A. 通过转录分析检查核苷酸序列， DNA测序 B。 分析毒力克隆中差异表达的蛋白质 其具有质粒lpB 31.24和缺乏lpB 31.24的无毒克隆。 C. 阐明lpB31.24相关基因产物的功能 cpB31.9 二. B中毒力因子的分子调控。burgdorferi A. 双组分信号转导蛋白的表征。 B。 铁在B细胞毒力因子表达中的作用。burgdorferi。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The importance of Lyme disease as an emerging public health problem is well known. The disease can be acute or chronic in nature and the spectrum of disease manifestations elicited in this infection continues to expand. As Lyme disease has attained public and medical attention, the difficulties in the clinical diagnosis and the limitations of the currently available laboratory diagnostic tests have become apparent. Presently three genospecies of B. burgdorferi are considered to be responsible for Lyme disease. However, differences have been observed in the clinical manifestations of Lyme disease and there appears to be some correlation of clinical manifestations with some of the genospecies. The disease manifestations, whether they be acute or chronic, are associated with the presence of live spirochetes although they are few in number. Little is known about the virulence factors of these spirochetes nor their mechanism of pathogenicity. Additional methods for the characterization and identification of the various isolates are needed to better understand the pathogenesis and the epidemiology of this emerging disease. The overall objective of the proposed studies is the identification of virulence factors in Borrelia burgdorferi: I. Identify plasmid encoded genes associated with virulence and elucidate their function in B.burgdorferi A. Examine nucleotide sequences by transcription analysis and DNA sequencing. B. Analyze proteins expressed differentially in virulent clones which possess the plasmid lpB31.24 and avirulent clones lacking lpB31.24. C. Elucidate the function of gene products associated with lpB31.24 and cpB31.9. II. Molecular regulation of virulence factors in B. burgdorferi A. Characterization of two-component signal transduction proteins. B. Role of iron in expression of virulence factors in B. burgdorferi.