Abstract
Xenodiagnosis is the use of a natural vector to detect the presence of an organism, and xenodiagnosis using Ixodes ticks has long been used by entomologists in Lyme disease research to provide evidence of the host’s infectious status with Borrelia burgdorferi. We developed the methodology and performed the first human research study using uninfected larval Ixodes scapularis ticks to assess evidence of B. burgdorferi infection. Here, we describe in detail the methodology used for the procedure. Xenodiagnosis using Ixodes ticks in humans remains an experimental method and must be performed under an approved clinical research protocol.
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Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
We thank Linden T. Hu, Sam R. Telford III, Kenneth Dardick, Erin Chung, Christina Brandeburg, and Maureen Lundt for their participation in the development of the procedures.
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Turk, SP., Williams, C., Marques, A. (2018). Xenodiagnosis Using Ixodes scapularis Larval Ticks in Humans. In: Pal, U., Buyuktanir, O. (eds) Borrelia burgdorferi. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1690. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7383-5_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7383-5_26
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