What are the virulence factors for Lyme disease?
What are the virulence factors for Lyme disease?
Virulence Factors
- Immune System Avoidance.
- Motility, Adhesins, and Chemotaxis.
- Quorum Sensing and Biofilms.
How is Lyme disease prevented?
You can decrease your risk of getting Lyme disease with some simple precautions:
- Cover up.
- Use insect repellents.
- Do your best to tick-proof your yard.
- Check your clothing, yourself, your children and your pets for ticks.
- Don’t assume you’re immune.
- Remove a tick as soon as possible with tweezers.
How do you control the spread of Borrelia burgdorferi?
Wear long-sleeved shirts and closed shoes when in tick infested areas. Use insect repellent to significantly reduce the chance of tick bites and the transmission of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. DEET is the primary active ingredient in most tick repellents and is considered the most effective.
Which vector is responsible for transferring Lyme disease?
The Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, is spread through the bite of infected ticks. The blacklegged tick (or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis) spreads the disease in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and north-central United States.
What makes Borrelia burgdorferi virulent?
Borrelia burgdorferi lacks classically defined virulence factors, such as secretion systems and toxins, and instead relies on dynamic genetic regulation and antigenic variability to invade multiple tissue types and evade the immune system (Radolf et al., 2012; D. Scott Samuels and Samuels, 2016).
How do you prevent Lyme disease after a tick bite?
In areas that are highly endemic for Lyme disease, a single prophylactic dose of doxycycline (200 mg for adults or 4.4 mg/kg for children of any age weighing less than 45 kg) may be used to reduce the risk of acquiring Lyme disease after the bite of a high risk tick bite.
What is the portal of entry for Lyme disease?
The portal of entry is the skin following a tick bite. In order to cause infection in the other organs mentioned above, B. burgdorferi must gain access to the blood stream and reach these organs through the hematogenous route.
