Research team finds genetic engineered Lyme bacterial proteins could offer long-standing protection against infection while requiring fewer vaccinations.

Borrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, a prevalent tick-borne illness. B. burgdorferi must survive long periods (months to a year) of apparent dormancy in the midgut of the tick vector between bloo...

Ixodes scapularis (formerly Ixodes dammini) ticks are the most important invertebrate vector of human diseases in North America (1). These ticks are responsible for spreading most cases of Lyme disease (predominantly caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto in North America), which affects an estimated 476,000 individuals in the United States yearly (2), as well as six other human pathogens—Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Borrelia miyamotoi, Borrelia mayonii, Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis, and deer tick virus/Powassan virus (3, 4). Tick feeding can trigger immunologic processes at the bite site in the skin, which may threaten the ability of the tick to survive during the blood meal (5). To prevent this from occurring, Ixodes ticks secrete saliva containing anticoagulants and immunomodulatory compounds into the feeding site, which dampens the host’s immune response and ensures that the tick can remain attached until completion of feeding (6–8). This secretion also contributes to the spread of B. burgdorferi into new hosts, both by providing a mechanism to exit the tick (9–11) and by dampening the immune response while the pathogen establishes the infection (12–19).

On November 21, join the LymeX Diagnostics Prize at the Phase 3 Demo Day in New York City. The teams will showcase their proposed solutions to government and industry stakeholders, including clinician...