Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Rhesus Macaques following Antibiotic Treatment of Disseminated Infection
Figure 2
Patterns of antibody response to the C6 peptide in infected animals.
The C6 index measured as a function of time PI with B. burgdorferi followed three distinct patterns in Experiment 1. Each graph is the longitudinal antibody response to C6 from one representative animal for each pattern. In treated (n = 12) animals (A) the response declined sharply, almost to background levels, within the antibiotic administration periods (solid vertical lines, weeks 27–31 for ceftriaxone, weeks 31–39 for doxycycline). In sham-treated animals (B, C) the response either declined, but independently from the sham treatment intervals, to eventually reach background level (B, n = 7), or oscillated throughout the study period without ever declining steadily (C, n = 5). The pattern in (C) corresponds to the C6-positive animals, indicated in Table 1. The dotted lines in B and C indicate the sham-treatment intervals. The index cut-off value was calculated as described in Material and Methods.