{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,28]],"date-time":"2026-07-28T13:37:28Z","timestamp":1785245848436,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769040000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic>Borrelia mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      , a\n                      <jats:italic>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      sensu lato (Bbsl) genospecies, is a cause of Lyme disease in the upper midwestern United States.\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      infection can present with some atypical clinical manifestations, including unusually high spirochetemia. Previous studies have demonstrated the infectivity of\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      in laboratory mice and found evidence of widespread dissemination to internal tissues, however, did not report evidence of high spirochetemia. In the current study, we sought to directly compare spirochetemia as well as typical Lyme disease pathology including arthritis and carditis in Lyme disease-susceptible mice infected with either\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      or\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      .\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Immunocompetent (C3HeB\/FeJ) and immunodeficient (SCID) mice were infected with\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      or\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Spirochetemia was measured in blood by qPCR, and pathology of hearts and joints examined.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Consistent with previous reports, we found that\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      spirochetemia observed in human patients is not recapitulated in C3H mice and did not reach higher detectable levels compared to\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Interestingly, tibiotarsal joint swelling and histopathology were restricted to\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      -infected mice and were not detected in any\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      -infected mice up to four weeks post-inoculation. Carditis was routinely detectable in both\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      -infected mice, although differences in kinetics and severity were observed.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Taken together, this study characterizes similarities and differences between\n                      <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>B. mayonii<\/jats:italic>\n                      in a laboratory model of Lyme disease. These findings add to the immunopathologic landscape caused by distinct genospecies in the Bbsl complex, which could shed light on the distinct host-pathogen interactions important for specific Lyme disease manifestations.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1727413","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T06:54:24Z","timestamp":1769064864000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Borrelia mayonii induces carditis but not arthritis in Lyme-susceptible mice"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Dawn W.","family":"Cleveland","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota","place":["Grand Forks, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nivanthi","family":"Wijetunga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota","place":["Grand Forks, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Timothy","family":"Casselli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota","place":["Grand Forks, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yvonne","family":"Tourand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota","place":["Grand Forks, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Heidi L.","family":"Pecoraro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, North Dakota State University","place":["Fargo, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Catherine A.","family":"Brissette","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota","place":["Grand Forks, ND, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(15)00464-8","article-title":"Identification of a novel pathogenic Borrelia species causing Lyme borreliosis with unusually high spirochaetaemia: a descriptive study","volume":"16","author":"Pritt","year":"2016","journal-title":"Lancet Infect Dis"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/JOURNAL.PONE.0168994","article-title":"Whole genome sequence and comparative genomics of the novel lyme borreliosis causing pathogen, borrelia mayonii","volume":"11","author":"Kingry","year":"2016","journal-title":"PloS One"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/OFID\/OFAD524","article-title":"Acute Lyme Disease with Atypical Features due to Borrelia mayonii","volume":"10","author":"Mcgowan","year":"2023","journal-title":"Open Forum Infect Dis"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/J.CMI.2021.07.023","article-title":"Borrelia mayonii - A cause of Lyme borreliosis that can be visualized by microscopy of thin blood films","volume":"28","author":"Pritt","year":"2022","journal-title":"Clin Microbiol Infection"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4878","DOI":"10.1099\/IJSEM.0.001445","article-title":"Borrelia mayonii sp. nov., a member of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, detected in patients and ticks in the upper midwestern United States","volume":"66","author":"Pritt","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int J Systematic Evolutionary Microbiol"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/JOURNAL.PONE.0036825","article-title":"Direct molecular detection and genotyping of Borrelia burgdorferi from whole blood of patients with early Lyme disease","volume":"7","author":"Eshoo","year":"2012","journal-title":"PloS One"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.00350-11","article-title":"Improving the yield of blood cultures from patients with early lyme disease","volume":"49","author":"Liveris","year":"2011","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"484","DOI":"10.1128\/CMR.18.3.484-509.2005","article-title":"Diagnosis of lyme borreliosis","volume":"18","author":"Aguero-Rosenfeld","year":"2005","journal-title":"Clin Microbiol Rev"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"658","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(13)61644-X","article-title":"A case of meningoencephalitis by the relapsing fever spirochaete Borrelia miyamotoi in Europe","volume":"382","author":"Hovius","year":"2013","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/J.CMI.2015.02.006","article-title":"Borrelia miyamotoi infection in nature and in humans","volume":"21","author":"Krause","year":"2015","journal-title":"Clin Microbiol Infection"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7326\/M15-0333","article-title":"Borrelia miyamotoi disease in the northeastern United States: A case series","volume":"163","author":"Molloy","year":"2015","journal-title":"Ann Internal Med"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3201\/EID1710.101474","article-title":"Humans infected with relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi, Russia","volume":"17","author":"Platonov","year":"2011","journal-title":"Emerging Infect Dis"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/JOURNAL.PPAT.1009256","article-title":"A murine model of Lyme disease demonstrates that Borrelia burgdorferi colonizes the dura mater and induces inflammation in the central nervous system","volume":"17","author":"Casselli","year":"2021","journal-title":"PloS Pathog"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/IAI.00061-23","article-title":"Endogenous Linear Plasmids lp28\u20134 and lp25 Are Required for Infectivity and Restriction Protection in the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia mayonii","volume":"91","author":"Casselli","year":"2023","journal-title":"Infection Immun"},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"196","DOI":"10.1016\/J.TTBDIS.2016.11.002","article-title":"Duration of Borrelia mayonii infectivity in an experimental mouse model for feeding Ixodes scapularis larvae","volume":"8","author":"Dolan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Ticks Tick-Borne Dis"},{"key":"B16","first-page":"521","article-title":"Isolation and cultivation of Lyme disease spirochetes","volume":"57","author":"Barbour","year":"1984","journal-title":"Yale J Biol Med"},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/CMI.12786","article-title":"Borrelia burgdorferi outer surface protein C (OspC) binds complement component C4b and confers bloodstream survival","volume":"19","author":"Caine","year":"2017","journal-title":"Cell Microbiol"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/FIMMU.2016.00442","article-title":"Multifunctional and redundant roles of borrelia burgdorferi outer surface proteins in tissue adhesion, colonization, and complement evasion","volume":"7","author":"Caine","year":"2016","journal-title":"Front Immunol"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0149889","article-title":"Expression of the tick-associated vtp protein of borrelia hermsii in a murine model of relapsing fever","volume":"11","author":"Marcsisin","year":"2016","journal-title":"PloS One"},{"key":"B20","first-page":"811","article-title":"Lyme borreliosis in the severe combined immunodeficiency (scid) mouse manifests predominantly in the joints, heart, and liver","volume":"137","author":"Schaible","year":"1990","journal-title":"Am J Pathol"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/INFDIS\/162.1.133","article-title":"Lyme borreliosis in selected strains and ages of laboratory mice","volume":"162","author":"Barthold","year":"1990","journal-title":"J Infect Dis"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4049\/JIMMUNOL.1102359","article-title":"Localized production of IL-10 suppresses early inflammatory cell infiltration and subsequent development of IFN-\u03b3-mediated Lyme arthritis","volume":"188","author":"Sonderegger","year":"2012","journal-title":"J Immunol (Baltimore Md. : 1950)"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/INFDIS\/JIZ050","article-title":"Borrelia burgdorferi infection in biglycan knockout mice","volume":"220","author":"Cuellar","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Infect Dis"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Immunology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1727413\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T07:44:18Z","timestamp":1771919058000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1727413\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"references-count":23,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1727413"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1727413","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-3224"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-3224","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"article-number":"1727413"}}