A new approach to diagnosing Lyme disease could help people receive treatment sooner, reducing the risk of long-term complications.
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria in the genus Borrelia and is transmitted to people through tick bites. Initial symptoms may include fever, headache or loss of energy, which can develop into more severe symptoms including ongoing fatigue and aches, facial palsy, heart problems and nerve pain if not promptly treated using antibiotics.
Doctors can diagnose the condition if they spot its distinctive bullseye-shaped rash, but . If Lyme disease is suspected but there is no rash, a blood sample can be sent for testing.
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This currently happens in two steps. First, it is assessed for Lyme disease antibodies, indicating an infection, but this test can give false positives. If the result is positive or borderline, the sample is sent to a specialist lab to confirm the presence of antibodies.
It can take several weeks to get a result, says at the University of California, Los Angeles. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the challenge with the current diagnostic regime.鈥�
Now, Di Carlo and his colleagues have developed a one-step test. This contains chains of molecules called peptides that mimic the antigens 鈥� the substances that elicit an immune response 鈥� on Borrelia bacteria.
Any Lyme disease antibodies in a sample of serum 鈥� the fluid that鈥檚 left after blood cells and clotting factors are removed from blood 鈥� would bind to these peptides, leading to a positive result.
The team put the approach to the test using 30 serum samples from parts of the US where Lyme disease is common, 15 from people confirmed to have the infection and 15 from controls. After testing each sample three times, the researchers found that the test picked up cases 95.5 per cent of the time, giving the results in around 15 minutes, and had no false positives.
But it hasn鈥檛 yet been tested in a clinical trial and so may be several years away from actual use, says team member , also at the University of California, Los Angeles. Populations of Borrelia species also differ worldwide and so the test may need to be optimised for use outside the US, the researchers say.
at the Scottish Lyme Disease and Tick-borne Infection Reference Laboratory says the approach could speed up diagnoses, but symptom awareness is key.
Nature Communications
