DEVELOPMENT OF TWO NOVEL CHIMERIC ANTIGEN LYME DIAGNOSTICS AND ASSESSMENT OF TEMPORAL ANTIBODY RESPONSE IN RHESUS MACAQUE MONKEYS INFECTED WITH Borreliella burgdorferi

Lyme Disease (LD) is a tick-transmitted infection caused by spirochetes of the genus Borreliella. It is the most prevalent tick-borne infection in North America and Europe, with approximately 476,000 cases diagnosed yearly in the United States alone. Serologic testing for LD presents challenges, including low sensitivity, complexity, and subjective result interpretation. The advancement of diagnostic methods is further hindered by factors such as differential gene expression, antigenic diversity among LD species, and antibody cross-reactivity with other spirochetal diseases. To address or circumvent many of these issues, the Marconi lab has developed two next-generation chimeric diagnostic antigens that can be used in the modified two-tiered test (MTTT), eliminating the need for time-consuming immunoblots in the standard two-tiered test (STTT). The two most promising diagnostic constructs are HDFL4 and DCFL4. They contain multiple full-length proteins that elicit an antibody response at different stages of infection. There are highlighted differences in host antibody response, where HDFL4 has been shown to be an effective diagnostic in humans and DCFL4 in canines. Neither has been tested in a non-human primate model. This study aims to determine the diagnostic efficacy of these chimeric proteins and their individual antigens by assessing their immunogenicity over a 9-week course of infection via IgG and IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).