Cerebrospinal fluid-infiltrating CD4+ T cells recognize Borrelia burgdorferi lysine-enriched protein domains and central nervous system autoantigens in early lyme encephalitis Article

Lünemann, JD, Gelderblom, H, Sospedra, M et al. (2007). Cerebrospinal fluid-infiltrating CD4+ T cells recognize Borrelia burgdorferi lysine-enriched protein domains and central nervous system autoantigens in early lyme encephalitis . INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, 75(1), 243-251. 10.1128/IAI.01110-06

cited authors

  • Lünemann, JD; Gelderblom, H; Sospedra, M; Quandt, JA; Pinilla, C; Marques, A; Martin, R

authors

abstract

  • Neurological manifestations of Lyme disease are usually accompanied by inflammatory changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the recruitment of activated T cells into the CSF compartment. In order to characterize the phenotype and identify target antigens of CSF-inflltrating T cells in early neuroborreliosis with central nervous system (CNS) involvement, we combined T-cell cloning, functional testing of T-cell responses with positional scanning synthetic combinatorial peptide libraries, and biometric data analysis. We demonstrate that CD4+ gamma interferon-producing T cells specifically responding to Borrelia burgdorferi lysate were present in the CSF of a patient with acute Lyme encephalitis. Some T-cell clones recognized previously uncharacterized B. burgdoiferi epitopes which show a specific enrichment for lysine, such as the heat shock-induced chaperone HSP90. Degenerate T-cell recognition that included T-cell responses to borreliaspecific and CNS-specific autoantigens derived from the myelin protein 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase (CNPase) could be demonstrated for one representative clone. Our results show that spirochetal antigen-specific and Thl-polarized CD4+ lymphocytes infiltrate the CSF during monophasic CNS symptoms of Lyme disease and demonstrate that cross-recognition of CNS antigens by B. burgdorferi-specific T cells is not restricted to chronic and treatment-resistant manifestations. Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

publication date

  • January 1, 2007

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 243

end page

  • 251

volume

  • 75

issue

  • 1