{"id":4906,"date":"2014-06-05T11:26:15","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inbre\/?page_id=4906"},"modified":"2014-06-05T11:26:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:26:15","slug":"reid","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/research\/surf-training-award\/reid\/","title":{"rendered":"Characterization of ganglioside-binding proteins from Borellia burgdorferi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Investigator:<\/strong>\u00a0Christopher Reid, Bryant University<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scientific Theme:<\/strong>\u00a0Neuroscience<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>The Lyme disease epidemic in the U.S. is far worse than doctors and public health professionals have\u00a0predicted. Last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported over 30,000 cases of\u00a0Lyme disease in the United States. It is estimated that unreported cases of Lyme disease brings the total in\u00a0excess of 300,000 annually. This large number is due to the belief that Lyme disease is significantly\u00a0underreported due to the broad physiological manifestations of the disease causing difficulty in diagnosis.\u00a0While our knowledge and understanding of <em>Borellia burgdorferi<\/em> (Bb) physiology and pathogenesis is contstantly improving,\u00a0exactly how Bb interacts with the CNS to cause disease is still a black box in our understanding of Lyme\u00a0disease. In order for Bb to cause neuropathologies, it must interact with nerve cells. Gangliosides, a\u00a0subfamily of glycosphingolipids, are particularly concentrated in the membranes of nervous tissue. These\u00a0glycolipids serve as a distinguishing surface marker for cell recognition and cell-to-cell communication. We\u00a0plan to use a bioinformatic approach to identify potential ganglioside binding proteins in Bb by probing the 17\u00a0available Bb genomes with a non-homologous database of known ganglioside binding proteins. We will use\u00a0a feature-incorporated alignment method (FIA) to identify putative carbohydrate binding modules and ligand\u00a0binding residues in the putative Bb ganglioside binding proteins. Once putative ganglioside binding proteins\u00a0are identified, they will be cloned and biochemically characterized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Human Health Relevance:<\/strong>\u00a0This research program will provide valuable information regarding the pathogenesis of neuroborreliosis by\u00a0identifying the mechanism by which Bb recognizes and binds to neural tissue. This research could lead to\u00a0potential therapeutic intervention for neuroborreliosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investigator:\u00a0Christopher Reid, Bryant University Scientific Theme:\u00a0Neuroscience Abstract:\u00a0The Lyme disease epidemic in the U.S. is far worse than doctors and public health professionals have\u00a0predicted. Last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported over 30,000 cases of\u00a0Lyme disease in the United States. It is estimated that unreported cases of Lyme disease brings the total [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":0,"parent":10206,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-twocol.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-4906","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4906\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}