Blood Test Designed for Multiple Tick-borne Diseases

A novel blood test for the simultaneous diagnosis of multiple tick-borne diseases has been developed and shown to discriminate antibody responses to eight major tick-borne pathogens present in the United States.

Investigators at Columbia University (New York, NY, USA) demonstrated the ability of the Tick-Borne Disease Serochip (TBD-Serochip) assay to detect and differentiate Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Rickettsia rickettsii, Heartland virus and Powassan virus.

Each assay contained approximately 170,000 12-mer linear peptides that tiled along the protein sequence of the major antigens from each agent with 11 amino acid overlap. This format enabled accurate identification of a wide range of specific immunodominant IgG and IgM epitopes that could then be used to enhance diagnostic accuracy and integrate differential diagnosis into a single assay.

The new test should replace the cumbersome two-test approach currently used to diagnose Lyme disease, the most common TBD. This method, which relies on subjective criteria for the interpretation of results, accurately identifies fewer than 40% of patients with early disease and results in false positives 28% of the time.

To test the performance of the TBD-Serochip, the investigators examined sera from patients with confirmed Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and Powassan virus disease. They identified a wide range of specific discriminatory epitopes that facilitated accurate diagnosis of each disease. In addition, they also identified previously undiagnosed infections.

"Diagnosing tick-borne illness is a difficult journey for patients, delaying effecting treatment," said senior author Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. "The TBD-Serochip promises to make diagnosis far easier, offering a single, accurate test for eight different TBDs. Early detection of infection enables rapid and appropriate treatment."

The TBD-Serochip test was described in detail in the February 16, 2018, online edition of the journal Nature: Scientific Reports.

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