Patent ID: 8163500

Claim:
A method for determining the presence or absence of antibodies against a protein in a biological sample, comprising: (a) contacting a biological sample with the protein, and (b) determining the presence or absence of binding of antibodies to the protein, thereby determining the presence or absence of the antibodies in the biological sample, wherein the protein comprises (1) a first OspC polypeptide comprising one or more cysteines, and (2) a second OspC polypeptide comprising one or more cysteines, the first OspC polypeptide being linked to the second OspC polypeptide via a disulphide bridge formed between the most N-terminal cysteines in the first and second OspC polypeptides, and wherein both the first and second OspC polypeptides comprise at least one epitope that is specifically recognized by antibodies against OspC from Borrelia , the epitope comprising at least 10 contiguous amino acids from SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:6, or SEQ ID NO:9.