Lyme disease vaccine targets mice, not humans

Reservoir Targeted Vaccine Against Borrelia burgdorferi: A New Strategy to Prevent Lyme Disease Transmission

1. Luciana Meirelles Richer1,2,a,
2. Dustin Brisson3,
3. Rita Melo1,
4. Richard S. Ostfeld4,
5. Nordin Zeidner5 and
6. Maria Gomes-Solecki1,2

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center
2. ²Biopeptides, Memphis, Tennessee
3. ³University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
4. ⁴Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York
5. ⁵Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, One Health Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Dhaka, Bangladesh

1. Correspondence: Maria Gomes-Solecki, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, MIB 301A, Memphis, TN 38163 (mgomesso@uthsc.edu).

1. Presented in part: Tick-Borne Disease Integrated Pest Management Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 5–6 March 2013; 13th International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases, Boston, Massachusetts, 18–21 August 2013 [abstract 19].

2. ↵a Present affiliation: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.

Abstract

A high prevalence of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi in ixodid ticks is correlated with a high incidence of Lyme disease. The transmission of B. burgdorferi to humans can be disrupted by targeting 2 key elements in its enzootic cycle: the reservoir host and the tick vector. In a prospective 5-year field trial, we show that oral vaccination of wild white-footed mice resulted in outer surface protein A–specific seropositivity that led to reductions of 23% and 76% in the nymphal infection prevalence in a cumulative, time-dependent manner (2 and 5 years, respectively), whereas the proportion of infected ticks recovered from control plots varied randomly over time. Significant decreases in tick infection prevalence were observed within 3 years of vaccine deployment. Implementation of such a long-term public health measure could substantially reduce the risk of human exposure to Lyme disease.

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/02/11/infdis.jiu005.abstract

(NOT OPEN ACCESS)

ARTICLE:  http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1734262

"Field Trials Show New Technology Able To Prevent Lyme Disease Transmission"

Candidate Oral Bait Vaccine Targets the Vector, Not Humans, to Interrupt Cycle of Transmission

PR Newswire

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 12, 2014

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A new technology has been shown to reduce the level of tick infection of Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of Lyme disease. Study details were published online today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, in advance of print publication.

The oral bait vaccine was distributed to white-footed mice, which account for the majority of the transmission of Borrelia. The mice created antibodies in response to the vaccine. When ticks later fed on the mice, the ingested antibodies killed the Borrelia and prevented the transmission of Lyme disease..."  (CONTINUED)

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1734262#ixzz2tA7cydUZ