IgM antibodies against OspC are the most important serological marker for the diagnosis of acute infections with Borrelia. Scientific studies have shown that native OspC (dimeric form) is an outstanding antigenic substrate. However, the standardised production of native OspC is complicated, and for this reason recombinant OspC is often used in commercial tests. In order to achieve high expression rates, recombinant OspC protein is generally expressed in a shortened form, which prevents to a large extent the formation of covalently bound dimers. In serological tests monomeric OspC reacts with a lower sensitivity than dimeric OspC (Probst et al., 2012) and must therefore be employed in high concentrations. Although this leads to an acceptable detection rate, a large number of unspecific reactions occur.

Scientists at EUROIMMUN have successfully produced recombinant, covalently bound dimeric OspC using genetic techniques (European patent EP 2 199 303 A1). This OspC advanced antigen is over 30% more specific than conventional recombinant OspC, with the same sensitivity as native OspC. OspC advanced is the most important antigenic component in the new Anti-Borrelia EUROLINE-RN-AT-adv (DN 2131-2 M). Thus, with this lineblot the risk of false positive IgM results in borreliosis serology is minimised. Moreover, antibodies against all relevant human pathogenic Borrelia genospecies are reliably detected, since the test contains OspC advanced from B. afzelii, B. burgdorferi, B. garinii and B. spielmanii.

The Anti-Borrelia EUROLINE-RN-AT-adv is part of a complete package for Borrelia diagnostics from EUROIMMUN, which is designed to fulfil all your needs. It is based on international guidelines for two-stage borreliosis diagnostics (DGHM, Germany; RKI, Germany; CDC, USA) and for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diagnostics. All reagents are CE certified, and  comprehensive automation solutions are available for all test systems. Extensive evaluation data are provided on request. 

* Including ready-to-use, colour-coded controls for verification of the incubation/evaluation