Papers by Natasha Rudenko
Borrelia garinii, is a cause of Lyme disease in Europe and Asia. For the first time, we report it... more Borrelia garinii, is a cause of Lyme disease in Europe and Asia. For the first time, we report it in the southeastern United States in rodents. Whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis revealed that USA-located B. garinii is part of a clade consisting primarily of few European and majority of Far Eastern strains. Continued surveillance of wildlife hosts and ticks is necessary to assess the ecological status and public health risks of B. garinii in southeastern US.
Climate impact on Lyme borreliosis and its causative agents
Climate, ticks and disease, 2021
Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multisystem disorder with a diverse spectrum of clinical manifestation... more Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multisystem disorder with a diverse spectrum of clinical manifestations. It is one of the most frequently recorded tick-borne diseases in the northern hemisphere, caused by selected species of spirochaetes from the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. This expert opinion discusses the impact of global warming and climate change on the abundance and distribution of LB and its causative agents.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
Ticks are important human and animal parasites and vectors of many infectious disease agents. Con... more Ticks are important human and animal parasites and vectors of many infectious disease agents. Control of tick activity is an effective tool to reduce the risk of contracting tick-transmitted diseases. The castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus) is the most common tick species in Europe. It is also a vector of the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis, which are two of the most important arthropod-borne diseases in Europe. In recent years, increases in tick activity and incidence of tick-borne diseases have been observed in many European countries. These increases are linked to many ecological and anthropogenic factors such as landscape management, climate change, animal migration, and increased popularity of outdoor activities or changes in land usage. Tick activity is driven by many biotic and abiotic factors, some of which can be effectively managed to decrease risk of tick bites. In the USA, recommendations for landscape management, tick host control, and tic...
Emerging Infectious Diseases
L yme disease is a multisystem disorder caused by infection with bacteria of the Borrelia burgdor... more L yme disease is a multisystem disorder caused by infection with bacteria of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species complex. Three members of this complex, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. garinii, and B. afzelii, are responsible for most cases of Lyme disease worldwide (1,2). B. burgdorferi s.l. is the only one of these 3 species that is found widely in North America, although B. garinii has been identified on islands off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (3-5). We describe the isolation and genome sequencing characterization of a South Carolina B. garinii isolate from a repository of strains from rodent hosts and tick vectors in the southeastern United States that had been identified as B. burgdorferi s.l. A second B. garinii isolate from the same B. burgdorferi s.l. strain repository was identified on the basis of multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Phylogenetic analysis showed that these 2 strains from the southeastern United States were most closely related to a group of B. garinii isolates from Europe but were not derived from strains from Canada, or vice versa (3). Methods Sources, Cultivation, and Analyses of Borrelia spp. The 2 Borrelia isolates described were isolated from ear biopsy specimens from a cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus) (SCCH-7) trapped in Charleston County, South Carolina, in 1995 and from an eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana) (SCGH-19) trapped in Georgetown County, South Carolina, in 1996 (Appendix, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/EID/article/29/1/22-0930-App1.pdf) (6). We performed Borrelia culture in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly H medium, DNA purification, and PCR analyses as described (7). We detected B. burgdorferi s.l. in samples by amplification of the 5S-23S intergenic region (8) (Appendix) by using species-specific PCR and primers designed on the basis of the ospA gene, which confirmed the presence of multiple spirochete species (9). Cultures in which B. garinii was confirmed were plated on solid medium, and clonal single colonies were isolated according to a modified protocol (10) (Appendix). Whole-Genome Sequencing and Genome Assembly We performed whole-genome sequencing by using the Pacific Biosciences Sequel II system (https:// www.pacb.com). We performed genome assembly by using the Genome Assembly tool in PacBio SMRTLink version 10.2 and 150 Mb of the HiFi reads >5 kb (Appendix).
Referee report. For: Culture and identification of Borrelia spirochetes in human vaginal and seminal secretions [version 3; referees: 2 approved, 2 not approved]
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) play an important role in the propagation of tick-borne pathogens
Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Ticks transmit a broad spectrum of pathogens, threatening both animal and human health. Tick surv... more Ticks transmit a broad spectrum of pathogens, threatening both animal and human health. Tick survival and proliferation are strongly dependent on host selection and suitability. The hard tick Ixodes ricinus, which is widespread throughout most of Europe, is a host generalist capable of feeding on many different vertebrate species. Pasture-kept exotic farm animals may be at a high risk for tick and tick-borne pathogens infestations but research characterizing this is currently lacking. This study focused on the detection of Borrelia spirochetes (including Borrelia miyamotoi) in exotic farm animals. Using nested-PCR with Borrelia-specific primers, 121 serum samples from 54 exotic farm animals of several species bred in four different farms in Bohemia and Moravia (Czechia) were tested. Positive samples were sequenced for the identification of Borrelia species. The prevalence of Borrelia DNA in the samples ranged from 13 to 67%, depending on the sampling site. The sequencing results con...
This article cites 21 articles, 10 of which can be accessed free
Microorganisms, 2020
Lyme borreliosis (LB), caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) comple... more Lyme borreliosis (LB), caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex, is one of the most common vector-borne zoonotic diseases in Europe. Knowledge about the enzootic circulation of Borrelia pathogens between ticks and their vertebrate hosts is epidemiologically important and enables assessment of the health risk for the human population. In our project, we focused on the following vertebrate species: European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), Northern white-breasted hedgehog (E. roumanicus), Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), and Common blackbird (Turdus merula). The cadavers of accidentally killed animals used in this study constitute an available source of biological material, and we have confirmed its potential for wide monitoring of B. burgdorferi s.l. presence and genospecies diversity in the urban environment. High infection rates (90% for E. erinaceus, 73% for E. roumanicus, 91% for S. vulgaris, and 68% for T. merula) were observed in all f...
Cultivation Methods of Spirochetes from Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Complex and Relapsing Fever Borrelia
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2016
Lyme borreliosis is a multisystem disorder with a diverse spectrum of clinical manifestations, ca... more Lyme borreliosis is a multisystem disorder with a diverse spectrum of clinical manifestations, caused by spirochaetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. It is an infectious disease that can be successfully cured by antibiotic therapy in the early stages; however, the possibility of the appearance of persistent signs and symptoms of disease following antibiotic treatment is recognized. It is known that Lyme borreliosis mimics multiple diseases that were never proven to have a spirochaete aetiology. Using complete modified Kelly-Pettenkofer medium we succeeded in cultivating live B. burgdorferi sensu lato spirochaetes from samples taken from people who suffered from undefined disorders, had symptoms not typical for Lyme borreliosis, but who had undergone antibiotic treatment due to a suspicion of having Lyme disease even though they were seronegative. We report the first recovery of live B. burgdorferi sensu stricto from residents of southeastern USA and the first successful cultivation of live Borrelia bissettii-like strain from residents of North America. Our results support the fact that B. bissettii is responsible for human Lyme borreliosis worldwide along with B. burgdorferi s.s. The involvement of new spirochaete species in Lyme borreliosis changes the understanding and recognition of clinical manifestations of this disease.
RESEARCH Open Access Divergence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato
spirochetes could be drive sequence polymorphism within Borrelia populations because of the re-as... more spirochetes could be drive sequence polymorphism within Borrelia populations because of the re-assortment of pre-existing sequence variants. Rudenko et al. Parasites & Vectors 2014, 7:4
Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases 1 (2010) 151-158 Multilocus sequence analysis of Borrelia bissettii strains from North America reveals a new Borrelia species, Borrelia kurtenbachii
a b s t r a c t Using multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), we investigated the phylogenetic relat... more a b s t r a c t Using multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), we investigated the phylogenetic relationship of spirochaete strains from North America previously assigned to the genospecies Borrelia bissettii. We amplified internal fragments of 8 housekeeping genes (clpA, clpX, nifS, pepX, pyrG, recG, rplB, and uvrA) located on the main linear chromosome by polymerase chain reaction. Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated sequences of the 8 loci showed that the B. bissettii clade consisted of 4 closely related clusters which included strains from California (including the type strain DN127-Cl9-2/p7) and Colorado that were isolated from Ixodes pacificus, I. spinipalpis, or infected reservoir hosts. Several strains isolated from I. scapularis clustered distantly from B. bissettii. Genetic distance analyses confirmed that these strains are more distant to B. bissettii than B. carolinensis, a recently described Borrelia species, which suggests that they constitute a new Borrelia genospecies....
Structure and viability of atypical morphological forms of Lyme disease spirochetes
European Microscopy Congress 2016: Proceedings, 2016
Rapid Communication Mutations in the NS2B and NS3 genes affect mouse neuroinvasiveness of a Western European field strain of tick-borne encephalitis virus
An attenuated strain (263) of the tick-borne encephalitis virus, isolated from field ticks, was e... more An attenuated strain (263) of the tick-borne encephalitis virus, isolated from field ticks, was either serially subcultured, 5 times in mice, or at 40 °C in PS cells, producing 2 independent strains, 263-m5 and 263-TR with identical genomes; both strains exhibited increased plaque size, neuroinvasiveness and temperature-resistance. Sequencing revealed two unique amino acid substitutions, one mapping close to the catalytic site of the viral protease. These observations imply that virus adaptation from ticks to mammals occurs by selection of pre-existing virulent variants from the quasispecies population rather than by the emergence of new random mutations. The significance of these observations is discussed.
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC alleles associated with human Lyme borreliosis 1 worldwide were detected in non-human biting tick Ixodes affinis and rodent hosts in
Parasites & Vectors, 2018
Vector-borne diseases constitute 17% of all infectious diseases in the world; among the blood-fee... more Vector-borne diseases constitute 17% of all infectious diseases in the world; among the blood-feeding arthropods, ticks transmit the highest number of pathogens. Understanding the interactions between the tick vector, the mammalian host and the pathogens circulating between them is the basis for the successful development of vaccines against ticks or the tick-transmitted pathogens as well as for the development of specific treatments against tick-borne infections. A lot of effort has been put into transcriptomic and proteomic analyses; however, the protein-carbohydrate interactions and the overall glycobiology of ticks and tick-borne pathogens has not been given the importance or priority deserved. Novel (bio)analytical techniques and their availability have immensely increased the possibilities in glycobiology research and thus novel information in the glycobiology of ticks and tick-borne pathogens is being generated at a faster pace each year. This review brings a comprehensive summary of the knowledge on both the glycosylated proteins and the glycan-binding proteins of the ticks as well as the tick-transmitted pathogens, with emphasis on the interactions allowing the infection of both the ticks and the hosts by various bacteria and tick-borne encephalitis virus.
Frontiers in microbiology, 2017
To understand the response of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi exposed to stress ... more To understand the response of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi exposed to stress conditions and assess the viability of this spirochete, we used a correlative cryo-fluorescence and cryo-scanning microscopy approach. This approach enables simple exposition of bacteria to various experimental conditions that can be stopped at certain time intervals by cryo-immobilization, examination of cell viability without necessity to maintain suitable culture conditions during viability assays, and visualization of structures in their native state at high magnification. We focused on rare and transient events e.g., the formation of round bodies and the presence of membranous blebs in spirochetes exposed to culture medium, host sera either without or with the bacteriolytic effect and water. We described all crucial steps of the workflow, particularly the influence of freeze-etching and accelerating voltage on the visualization of topography. With the help of newly designed cryo-tra...
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2017
Ticks and the pathogens they transmit constitute a growing burden for human and animal health wor... more Ticks and the pathogens they transmit constitute a growing burden for human and animal health worldwide. Vector competence is a component of vectorial capacity and depends on genetic determinants affecting the ability of a vector to transmit a pathogen. These determinants affect traits such as tick-host-pathogen and susceptibility to pathogen infection. Therefore, the elucidation of the mechanisms involved in tick-pathogen interactions that affect vector competence is essential for the identification of molecular drivers for tick-borne diseases. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of tick-pathogen molecular interactions for bacteria, viruses, and protozoa affecting human and animal health. Additionally, the impact of tick microbiome on these interactions was considered. Results show that different pathogens evolved similar strategies such as manipulation of the immune response to infect vectors and facilitate multiplication and transmission. Furthermore, some of thes...
Vector borne and zoonotic diseases (Larchmont, N.Y.), 2017
Borrelia species fall into two groups, the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) complex, the ca... more Borrelia species fall into two groups, the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) complex, the cause of Lyme borreliosis (also known as Lyme disease), and the relapsing fever group. Both groups exhibit inter- and intraspecies diversity and thus have variations in both clinical presentation and diagnostic approaches. A further layer of complexity is derived from the fact that ticks may carry multiple infectious agents and are able to transmit them to the host during blood feeding, with potential overlapping clinical manifestations. Besides this, pathogens like Borrelia have developed strategies to evade the host immune system, which allows them to persist within the host, including humans. Diagnostics can be applied at different times during the clinical course and utilize sample types, each with their own advantages and limitations. These differing methods should always be considered in conjunction with potential exposure and compatible clinical features. Throughout this review, we ...
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Papers by Natasha Rudenko