Use of human immortalized endothelial cells to isolate and propagate Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Ehrlichia canis

Abstract

This invention provides a purified immortalized human endothelial cell infected with Ehrlichia chaffeensis or Ehrlichia canis. Also provided is a method of simultaneously screening a sample from a human subject for the presence of E. chaffeensis and Rickettsia rickettsii comprising contacting the sample with immortalized human endothelial cells under conditions which allow infection of the cells and detecting the presence of infection, the presence of infection indicating the presence of E. chaffeensis and/or R. rickettsii. The invention also provides a method of screening a sample from a human subject for the presence of E. chaffeensis comprising contacting the sample with endothelial cells under conditions which allow infection of the cells by E. chaffeensis and detecting the presence of infection by E. chaffeensis the presence of infection by E. chaffeensis indicating the presence of E. chaffeensis in the sample. Finally, the invention provides a method of culturing E. chaffeensis or E. canis comprising contacting E. chaffeensis or E. canis with immortalized human endothelial cells under conditions which allow the propagation of E. chaffeensis or E. canis.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.