The main emphasis of the group is in the development of improved diagnostic methods for Lyme borreliosis using recombinant antigens and molecular biology. The present diagnostic tests for Lyme borreliosis are nonsatisfactory because of their weak sensitivity and specificity. The treatment of patients includes prolonged antibiotic treatment involving risks for adverse reactions to drugs, considerable costs, and increasing the environmental load of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Our group is studying the possibilities of improving the serological detection of Lyme borreliosis by using a panel of several recombinant outer membrane proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi as diagnostic antigens, in addition to conventional antigens and Western blotting with them, combinig with analysis of IgG subclass restrictions among the antibodies.
Future projects involve antibody avidity measurements with the recombinant antigens.
A thourough clinical analysis of the patient material and PCR diagnostics to demonstrate the presence of bacteria are requisites of the study, necessitating interdisciplininary collaborative effort for success in the study. Treatment of late Lyme borreliosis.