Use of flagellin-enriched antigens in a rapid, simple and specific quantitative enzyme immunoassay for lyme disease antibodies in human serum samples

Abstract An enzyme immunoassay (EIA, ELISA) using microwells coated with a flagellin-enriched fraction of B. burgdorferi and absorbent-containing sample diluent for the quantitative determination of Lyme disease (LD) IgG and IgM antibodies in human serum samples was described. This LD EIA required three 15-minute incubations at room temperature, followed by a 1-step normalization of photometer readings to EIA units (EU/ml). Compared with tests using the whole bacterial extract as antigens and a sample diluent containing 6% BSA, this new LD EIA revealed lower values for 20 syphilis (SS) and 21 normal serum samples (NS) but about the same for 21 Lyme disease (LD) samples, allowing lower cut-off points which would place almost all these SS and NS samples below while almost all LD samples above the positive cut-off point. The LD EIA results of larger numbers (67 to 291) of mixed samples correlated with results of four reference EIA. However, the LD EIA gave lower (2 to 4 fold) reactivities (index values) with...