Lyme borreliosis (LB), caused by bacteria of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Borrelia) species, is
the most common tick-borne infection in the northern hemisphere. LB diagnostics is based on clinical
evaluation of the patient and on laboratory testing, where the main method is the detection of Borrelia
specific antibodies in patient samples. There are, however, shortcomings in the current serology based
LB diagnostics, especially its inability to differentiate ongoing infection from a previously treated one.
Identification of specific biomarkers of diseases is a growing application of metabolomics. One of the
main methods of metabolomics is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In the present
study, our aim was to analyze whether Borrelia growth in vitro and infection in vivo in mice causes
specific metabolite differences, and whether NMR can be used to detect them. For this purpose,
we performed NMR analyses of in vitro culture medium samples, and of serum and urine samples of
Borrelia infected and control mice. The results show, that there were significant differences in the
concentrations of several amino acids, energy metabolites and aromatic compounds between Borrelia
culture and control media, and between infected and control mouse serum and urine samples. For
example, the concentration of L-phenylalanine increases in the Borrelia growth medium and in serum of
infected mice, whereas the concentrations of allantoin and trigonelline decrease in the urine of infected
mice. Therefore, we conclude that Borrelia infection causes measurable metabolome differences in vitro
and in Borrelia infected mouse serum and urine samples, and that these can be detected with NMR.