We could prove binding of 2 ST4 gbb orthologs, BGA66 and BGA71, to human FHL-1, whereas BGA66 also bound CFH. Moreover, both these and other MGCD0103 orthologs from the gbb54 family were also able to bind CFH from various animal species. Results Serum susceptibility testing of borrelial strains To assess and to compare serum susceptibility of B. garinii PBi and VSBP as well as B. burgdorferi ss B31, spirochetes were incubated for 3 h with either 50% NHS or 50% HI NHS. As shown in Fig 1, >75% of the cells of B. garinii ST4 PBi and B. burgdorferi ss B31 survived in serum, indicating that both strains resist complement-mediated killing.

In contrast, B. garinii non-ST4 strain VSBP was highly sensitive to complement as 99% of the cells were immobilized and showed blebs after 3 hours. Incubation of strains PBi, VSBP, and B31 with HI NHS resulted in no or very little immobilisation. Summarising B. garinii ST4 PBi and B. P005091 mw burgdorferi ss B31 are resistant to human serum when incubated with active human complement, while B. garinii non-ST4 VSBP is not human serum resistant. Batimastat cell line Figure 1 In vitro serum susceptibility of B. garinii ST4 PBi, B. garinii non-ST4 VSBP, and B. burgdorferi ss B31. Resistance to complement was determined by counting motile spirochetes by dark-field microscopy and values obtained were represented as percentages

of survival. All strains were tested in triplicate with 50% NHS and HiNHS. VSBP is rapidly killed by complement, while >75%of B. burgdorferi

ss B31 and B. garinii ST4 PBi are alive after 3 hours of incubation. The detection of the membrane attack complex deposited on borrelial cells after complement activation To test whether membrane attack complex (MAC) was formed on the surface of different strains after complement activation, spirochetes were incubated with 25% serum and deposition of the MAC was detected by immuno-fluorescence microscopy (IF) (Fig 2). The majority of the cells of B. garinii ST4 PBi and B. burgdorferi ss B31 stained negative for the MAC while all B. garinii non-ST4 VSBP were fully covered with MAC. This finding indicates that B. garinii ST4 PBi and B. burgdorferi ss B31 allow formation of the MAC on their bacterial Astemizole surface only to a limited extent in comparison to B. garinii non-ST4 strain VSBP. Figure 2 Detection of deposited C5b-9 complex on the surface of Borrelia by Immunofluorescence microscopy. B. garinii PBi and VSBP and B. burgdorferi ss B31 were incubated with 25% NHS and deposition of C5b-C9 was detected by a MAb. Few cells of B. garinii ST4 PBi stained positive for C5b-C9, while almost all spirochetes were covered with C5b-C9 using B. garinii non-ST4 VSBP. The absence of deposition of C5b-C9 onto B. burgdorferi ss B31 is comparable to B. garinii ST4 PBi. Detection of bound complement regulators to different borrelial strains In order to elucidate the capability of serum resistant B.