Publications

fibronectin-binding protein of borrelia hermsii expressed in the blood of mice with relapsing fever.	to identify and characterize surface proteins expressed by the relapsing fever (rf) agent borrelia hermsii in the blood of infected mice, we used a cell-free filtrate of their blood to immunize congenic naive mice. the resultant antiserum was used for western blotting of cell lysates, and gel slices corresponding to reactive bands were subjected to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, followed by a search of the proteome database with the peptides. one of the immunogens was identified ...	2014	24686059
laboratory diagnosis of tick-borne african relapsing fevers: latest developments.	in africa, relapsing fevers caused by ectoparasite-borne borrelia species are transmitted by ticks, with the exception of borrelia recurrentis, which is a louse-borne spirochete. these tropical diseases are responsible for mild to deadly spirochetemia. cultured borrelia crocidurae, borrelia duttonii, and borrelia hispanica circulate alongside at least six species that have not yet been cultured in vectors. direct diagnosis is hindered by the use of non-specific laboratory tools. indeed, microsco ...	2015	26618151
blood-borne candidatus borrelia algerica in a patient with prolonged fever in oran, algeria.	to improve the knowledge base of borrelia in north africa, we tested 257 blood samples collected from febrile patients in oran, algeria, between january and december 2012 for borrelia species using flagellin gene polymerase chain reaction sequencing. a sequence indicative of a new borrelia sp. named candidatus borrelia algerica was detected in one blood sample. further multispacer sequence typing indicated this borrelia sp. had 97% similarity with borrelia crocidurae, borrelia duttonii, and borr ...	2015	26416117
monoclonal antibodies for the diagnosis of borrelia crocidurae.	relapsing fever borreliae, produced by ectoparasite-borne borrelia species, cause mild to deadly bacteremia and miscarriage. in the perspective of developing inexpensive assays for the rapid detection of relapsing fever borreliae, we produced 12 monoclonal antibodies (mabs) against borrelia crocidurae and characterized the two exhibiting the highest titers. p3a10 mab reacts with the 35.6-kda flagellin b (flab) of b. crocidurae while p6d9 mab recognizes a 35.1-kda variable-like protein (vlp) in b ...	2016	26598566
"candidatus borrelia kalaharica" detected from a febrile traveller returning to germany from vacation in southern africa.	a 26 year-old female patient presented to the tropical medicine outpatient unit of the ludwig maximilians-university in munich with febrile illness after returning from southern africa, where she contracted a bite by a large mite-like arthropod, most likely a soft-tick. spirochetes were detected in giemsa stained blood smears and treatment was started with doxycycline for suspected tick-borne relapsing fever. the patient eventually recovered after developing a slight jarisch-herxheimer reaction ...	2016	27031729
a proteomic insight into the midgut proteome of ornithodoros moubata females reveals novel information on blood digestion in argasid ticks.	the argasid tick ornithodoros moubata is the main african vector of the human relapsing fever agent borrelia duttoni and the african swine fever virus. together with saliva, the tick midgut forms part of the host-tick-pathogen interface, and numerous midgut proteins play key functions in the blood digestion-related process and the infection and transmission of pathogens. this work explores the composition of the midgut proteome of unfed and fed o. moubata females with the aim to complete the bio ...	2017	28764815
relapsing fever causative agent in southern iran is a closely related species to east african borreliae.	we obtained two blood samples from relapsing fever patients residing in jask county, hormozgan province, southern iran in 2013. sequencing of a partial fragment of glpq from two samples, and further characterization of one of them by analyzing flab gene, and 16s-23s spacer (igs) revealed the greatest sequence identity with east african borreliae, borrelia recurrentis, and borrelia duttonii, and borrelia microti from iran. phylogenetic analyses of glpq, flab, and concatenated sequences (glpq, fla ...	2017	28736193