Novel Protein's Role in Lyme Disease to Be Studied

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 25, 2013) — Brian Stevenson, a professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, has been awarded a grant to study the influence of a newly discovered protein, called EbfC, on gene expression in the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. 

Vector-borne pathogens, such as B. burgdorferi, are transmitted back and forth between hosts and need to sense and respond to their environment by upregulating expression of certain proteins (making more of them) while suppressing others, depending on their current host environment, in order to enhance their chance for survival. 

Stevenson has discovered that EbfC, a site-specific DNA-binding protein, regulates expression of over 50 genes in B. burgdorferi, or more than 5 percent of its entire genome. Many of these genes are differentially expressed depending on the host environment and are likely critical to the pathogen’s ability to maintain infectivity in both ticks and mammals.

By studying the effects of EbfC on different phases of the tick-mammal infectious cycle, Stevenson hopes to decipher the specific details of its regulatory role. Further, because regulatory pathways are attractive targets for the development of novel preventative and curative therapies, and because many other bacterial pathogens contain genes similar to EbfC, this work has the potential to improve prevention and treatment not only of Lyme disease, but of other significant human diseases as well.

Funding for the research was awarded by the National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases.