posted
This is a new lyme test under development thru George Mason University in Arlington, VA. Two of the scientists behind the test (Lance Liotta and Alessandra Luchini) gave a presentation about the test at the PAL conference.
As many of you know I am an accountant and not a scientist. But from what I know I think the test has potential to be very helpful.
The test is based on nanoparticle technology so it is very sensitive. The new test is very similar to the old LUAT test from IGeneX. It will measure the amount of Osp A antigen in the urine so it is also very specific.
According to the presenters the test is 1000 times more sensitive than the LUAT test. It will be a quantitative test with results of 1 - 10 picograms per milliliter as a positive result.
In theory Osp A antigen should only be present during an active lyme infection. So if the test works like it is supposed to it could prove the existence of chronic infection even when antibody tests such as ELISA and Western Blot are negative.
Test is currently undergoing clinical trials with 3 different Virginia physicians. One of those is an extremely expensive LLMD (think $5000 per month fee), a 2nd one included Primary Care in the practice name and the 3rd one I missed hearing.
Anyway -- those 3 physicians enrolled 151 patients in the initial clinical trials.
52 of those patients had positive serology from either Lab Corp or Quest. 8 patients (not sure if in the 52 above or not) met CDC lyme definition with rash and had been untreated -- all of those 8 were IgM positive and some IgG positive as well. If I understood correctly all 52 of these tests were positive with the new test.
82 patients had persistent lyme symptoms but negative serology -- these are the patients this test will hopefully be of benefit to.
21 out of 21 with symptoms but uncertain etiology tested positive with new test. The numbers didn't seem to add up -- not sure about test results from the other 61 patients?
17 patients were negative controls -- all tested negative with new test.
Researchers are uncertain if there are any cross reactions with concurrent infections that would influence test results at this time.
The test requires a frozen urine sample and the urine concentration is normalized to a specific gravity of 1.005 during the testing procedure.
Supposedly the test will detect all strains of borrelia sensu strictu which includes borrelia burgdorferi, borrelia affzelii, borrelia garninii and I think there are some other strains.
The nanotechnology technique could be used for urine, blood, saliva, joint fluid or cerebral spinal fluid.
Hubby actually had a blood test which included tests for Osp A once. I think that test has recently become available again. It was the Immunosciences Serology of Lyme test. I posted those test results back in 2006 and a search should find that thread.
The new test is scheduled to be commercially available in the Spring of 2014.
And even more exciting the lab has plans to develop future tests based on the nanotechnology that would test for other lyme antigens -- Osp C, VlsE, DbpA, DbpB and Erp proteins.
Further down the road they are also considering developing similar tests for babesia and bartonella.
The test will be called Nanotrap Lyme Disease Urine Antigen Test.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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GretaM
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Wow! That is very promiising!
Can hardly wait for spring Posts: 4358 | From British Columbia, Canada | Registered: Jun 2013
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Judie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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That's fantastic! This seems like a very useful test.
Posts: 2839 | From California | Registered: Jul 2012
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The test sounds very specific, but I'm not so sure about the sensitivity, especially if OspA is the ONLY antigen which the test is set to detect.
The reason I say this is that we must take account of the fact that Lyme can be caused by Borrelia which are not in the Bbsl group at all, such as Borrelia miyamotoi. OspA by definition belongs to Bbsl, so a Borrelia not in the Bbsl group won't show up.
We know Borrelia miyamotoi ifection can look just like Lyme, complete with EM rash, and it can be very severe indeed, and we know it's all over ie in US, Europe, Asia etc..
The other thing to consider is that OspA is one of the most genetically variable molecules in Bb.
That is one reason the Lymerix vaccine was ineffective, and it could potentially make this test less sensitive. It would be interesting to know just how they capture the OspA onto the nanoparticle - the website does not seem to have any information about that as far as I can see.
Btw Bea you said that the presenters claim it will pick up all strains of Bb sensu stricto. Garinii and afzelli are not strains of Bb sensu stricto, they are part of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato group,like sensu stricto, but are very distinct from Bb sensu stricto.
Americans who have traveled abroad could well be infected with garinii or other non sensu stricto strains, and we know from Eva Sapi's culture test study that garinii and afzelli may well be common even in the US, despite CDC denials.
Are you sure they said "all strains of sensu stricto" and not "sensu lato". If so, it may well miss many Americans and could also miss most people infected outside US IMO. Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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I may have misunderstood the difference between senso strictu and sensu lato. The lady researcher is Italian -- she speaks English with a slight accent -- and possibly I misphrased my question or she interpreted it incorrectly due to a language barrier.
I did send a copy of what I wrote to the lab and asked them to post any corrections if needed to this thread. So hopefully we will get clarification.
The entire presentation was only 15 or 20 minutes I think and the capture method was explained very quickly -- slides may have been identical to those on the website. I think there is a reagent involved in the process, but am not positive of that.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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