Maternal antibodies provide strain-specific protection against infection with the Lyme disease pathogen in bank voles.

Maternal antibodies provide strain-specific protection against infection with the Lyme disease pathogen in bank voles. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Sep 20;: Authors: Gomez-Chamorro A, Heinrich V, Sarr A, Roethlisberger O, Genné D, Bregnard C, Jacquet M, Voordouw MJ Abstract Multiple-strain microbial pathogens often induce strain-specific antibody responses in their vertebrate hosts. Mothers can transmit antibodies to their offspring, which can provide short-term, strain-specific protection against infection. Few experimental studies have investigated this phenomenon for multiple-strain zoonotic pathogens occurring in wildlife reservoir hosts. The tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii causes Lyme disease in Europe and consists of multiple strains that cycle between the tick vector (Ixodes ricinus) and vertebrate hosts such as the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). We used a controlled experiment to show that female bank voles infected with B. afzelii via tick bite transmit protective antibodies to their offspring. To test the specificity of protection, the offspring were challenged using a natural tick bite challenge with either the maternal strain to which the mothers had been exposed or a different strain. The maternal antibodies protected the offspring against a homologous infectious challenge, but not against a heterologous infectious challenge. The offspring from the uninfected control mothers were equally susceptible to both strains...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research