Direct Detection of Borrelia Species in Tissues

Shiva Kumar Goud Gadila; Monica E Embers

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-3561-2_2

Direct Detection of Borrelia Species in Tissues

Methods Mol Biol. 2024:2742:19-35. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3561-2_2.

Authors

Shiva Kumar Goud Gadila¹, Monica E Embers²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Immunology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences, New Orleans, LA, USA.
² Division of Immunology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences, New Orleans, LA, USA. members@tulane.edu.

PMID: 38165612
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3561-2_2

Abstract

Among the controversies in Lyme disease is the potential for Borrelia spirochetes to persist after guideline-directed antimicrobial therapy. Direct detection of the spirochetes has been essential to explore this phenomenon, given that the infection is often occult and infrequently observed in blood and other body fluids. In addition, the role of spirochetal infection has been examined in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases through detection in affected tissues. In this chapter, we describe methodology to specifically identify Borrelia DNA, RNA, and intact organism (via protein) in tissue for studies of Lyme Borreliosis.

Keywords: Autopsy; Borrelia; Human; Immunofluorescence Assay (IFA); Nonhuman primate; PCR; RNA in situ hybridization.

MeSH terms

Borrelia* / genetics
Humans
Lyme Disease* / diagnosis