IL-6 Enhances Anti-B. burgdorferi Antibody Production.(Brief Article)

2001 SEP 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has a previously unrecognized role in the protective response against Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen responsible for Lyme disease, researchers in the United States have found.

The findings of M.C. Remington and colleagues, published in Infection and Immunity may have implications for vaccine development.

"We investigated the borreliacidal antibody response in sera and the amount of antibody produced by cultured lymph node cells of C3H/HeJ mice vaccinated with outer surface protein C (OspC)," reported Remington and coworkers. They noted that potent borreliacidal activity is critical for elimination of the spirochete and measurement of antibody levels are therefore crucial in the study of vaccine candidates.

The researchers found that OspC was a weak stimulant of borreliacidal antibody production compared with whole cells of OspC-expressing B. burgdorferi. But although mice vaccinated with B. burgdorferi in adjuvant produced a high titer of anti-OspC borreliacidal antibody, that response waned rapidly, as did the borreliacidal antibody production by cultured lymph node cells from vaccinated mice.

Treatment of lymph node cells with IL-6, however, augmented borreliacidal antibody production, particularly immunoglobulin G2b, whereas treatment with anti-IL-6 inhibited the borreliacidal response, reported Remington and ...