ANTI-TICK ANTIBODY IN LYME DISEASE RESEARCH

莱姆病是美国最常见的媒介传播疾病。 它是由伯氏疏螺旋体引起的，并传播到 人类在美国东北部发现的北方鹿--达米尼硬蜱 滴答滴答。在世界范围内，这些硬体动物和其他硬体动物是最重要的 嗜血性节肢动物传播传染病的媒介 第二重要的是，对蚊子来说，作为传染病原体的媒介 人类。研究表明，被扁虱叮咬很难 认得，但往往不被认出。这种无法识别扁虱的能力 咬伤阻碍了疾病的预防和预防。 流行病学调查。接触扁虱的生物标志物会 因此在莱姆病危险因素的流行病学研究中具有实用价值。 以及在预防疾病方面的作用。一大堆文学文献 宿主对扁虱产生复杂的免疫反应；它一直是 证明实验室动物能产生几种抗体 我的唾液成分和最近的研究表明，人类 针对扁虱唾液腺蛋白的抗体可能是一种有用的生物 扁虱暴露的标志物。这项提案的总体目标是 证实壁虱暴露的生物标志物--抗壁虱唾液腺 人血清中的蛋白抗体(ATA)，并显示这种方法的实用性 莱姆病流行病学研究中的标志物。几个基于字段的 旨在优化酶联免疫吸附试验的流行病学研究和实验室试验 建立了检测条件并鉴定了I。 包括能引起抗体反应的迷你唾液。的目标 以现场为基础的研究旨在建立敏感性、特异性和 ATA对新作工人的阳性预测价值 在这样的工人中，跟踪ATA发展的时间进程 (Kinetics)，研究人类对 抗原，并评估ATA作为结果衡量标准的使用(依赖 变量)，首先是在观察性流行病学研究中， 然后在户外工作者身上进行了氯氰菊酯的随机对照试验。

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.