, 2002b). Given this finding, many laboratories have tried to identify surface proteins that are expressed during the mammalian phase of the enzootic cycle to help identify novel vaccine candidates

or disease modulating therapeutics for Lyme disease (Brooks et al., 2006). While numerous outer surface lipoproteins have been identified in recent years, there has only been a paucity of integral transmembrane OMPs identified and characterized over the last 20 years. The small number of integral OMPs identified is most likely due to the low abundance of the integral OMPs as compared to outer surface lipoproteins that are typically expressed at very abundant levels. Additionally, integral OMPs appear to be poorly immunogenic as compared to lipoproteins, and they also can be hidden on the surface under the abundant lipoproteins that coat the borrelial surface. DNA Damage inhibitor Given that freeze-fracture electron microscopy has shown that numerous integral OMPs are embedded in the B. burgdorferi OM (Radolf et al., 1994), it is likely that many other OMPs have yet to be identified. While it may take Bortezomib the advent of new technologies or methodologies to identify these scarce proteins in future studies, the integral

OMPs are typically very highly conserved among different genospecies, which suggests that they may be the best candidates for developing a second-generation Lyme disease vaccine. Therefore, identification of new outer surface proteins should be a high priority in the Lyme disease field, as these studies should not only help to identify proteins that may better delineate how B. burgdorferi interacts with its tick vector, but also should help to elucidate how this spirochete heptaminol is transmitted to the mammal from the tick, disseminates within the infected host, and, ultimately, evades

the robust host humoral and cellular immune response leading to chronic infection. We would like to thank the current and former members of our laboratory and our colleagues for their contributions to the identification and functional characterization of Borrelia outer surface proteins. This work was partially supported by grants AI059373 and AI085310 from the NIH (NIAID) and an award HR09-002 from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. “
“The dramatic increase in the amount of research data being produced necessarily leads to higher demands on statistical thresholds and on experimental planning. This is to avoid positive selection of multiple tested data. Here we would like to highlight the need for including littermate controls in animal experiments, in particular when genetically modified strains are analysed for quantitative phenotypes. Thus, this suggestion will have impact on most immunological experiments performed today. Proof of new findings published in immunological journals like the European Journal of Immunology (EJI) is often based on the analysis of mouse strains made from genetically modified embryonic stem (ES) cells.