{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T13:32:46Z","timestamp":1783344766940,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781222400000},"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:p>\n                    <jats:italic>Borrelia miyamotoi<\/jats:italic>\n                    is an emerging relapsing fever spirochete transmitted by\n                    <jats:italic>Ixodes<\/jats:italic>\n                    spp. ticks that serve as vectors for other human pathogens, including the agents of Lyme disease. To date, an animal model to study tick-borne\n                    <jats:italic>B. miyamotoi<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection and pathology has not been reported. Here, we describe the development of a laboratory mouse model of infection using clinical isolate CT14D4 derived from the blood of a Connecticut resident with disseminated Lyme disease. Genomic analysis revealed that the CT14D4 genome was similar to other\n                    <jats:italic>B. miyamotoi<\/jats:italic>\n                    strains isolated from\n                    <jats:italic>Ixodes scapularis<\/jats:italic>\n                    ticks in the eastern United States. We show that CT14D4 can be propagated in mice by needle inoculation and through a tick\u2013mouse infection cycle. Relapsing spirochetemia was observed in wild-type (WT),\n                    <jats:italic>Myd88<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sup>\u2212\/\u2212<\/jats:sup>\n                    , and splenectomized mice, all of which eventually cleared the infections. In contrast,\n                    <jats:italic>Rag1<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sup>\u2212\/\u2212<\/jats:sup>\n                    mice lacking B and T cells remain persistently bacteremic. WT mice that had cleared CT14D4 infection are resistant to reinfection with this\n                    <jats:italic>B. miyamotoi<\/jats:italic>\n                    strain. Spirochetes were visualized in several organs after perfusion fixation of infected\n                    <jats:italic>Rag1<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sup>\u2212\/\u2212<\/jats:sup>\n                    mice, including the brain, with histopathology revealing extramedullary hematopoiesis and inflammatory infiltrates that were most pronounced in the liver. WT mice exhibited similar but milder pathology during periods of bacteremia. These studies provide a useful model to study hard-tick relapsing fever pathogenesis and disease.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1851617","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T04:43:21Z","timestamp":1781239401000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Establishment of a laboratory mouse model to study Borrelia miyamotoi infection and disease"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Linda K.","family":"Bockenstedt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Dept of Internal Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Yale School of Medicine","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexia A.","family":"Belperron","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dept of Internal Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Yale School of Medicine","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jialing","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dept of Internal Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Yale School of Medicine","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caroline J.","family":"Zeiss","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alan G.","family":"Barbour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine","place":["Irvine, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michel","family":"Ledizet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"L2 Diagnostics, LLC","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter J.","family":"Krause","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine","place":["New Haven, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kenneth R.","family":"Dardick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mansfield Family Practice","place":["Storrs, CT, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0010212","article-title":"Tick borne relapsing fever - a systematic review and analysis of the literature","volume":"16","author":"Jakab","year":"2022","journal-title":"PloS NeglTrop 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