Lyme Disease Research for Education and Treatment Methods
There has been much research done since the organisms that cause Lyme Disease were identified beginning in the late 1970's. Here is a sampling of research that is particularly relevant to patients and healthcare practioners.
General Research on Lyme Disease
'Lyme Disease': ancient engine of an unrecognized boreliosis pandemic?
W. T. Harvey, P. Salvato
Summary Unexpectedly we have found large numbers of chronically ill Borrelia burgdorferi PCR- and seropositive patients in Houston, Texas, a zoonotically ‘non-endemic’ area. In order to understand this finding prior to sufficient data availability, we chose to examine critically currently accepted but troublesome ‘Lyme disease’ concepts. Our method was to analyze each foundation ‘Lyme disease’ premise within the context of available medical and veterinary literature, then to reconstruct the disease model consistent with the preponderance of that data. We find the present conceptualization of the illness seriously truncated, with a high likelihood of two distinct but connected forms of human B. burgdorferi infection. The yet-unrecognized form appears to have a broader clinical presentation, wider geographic distribution, and vastly greater prevalence. We conclude that ‘Lyme disease’ currently acknowledges only its zoonosis arm and is a limited conceptualization of a far more pervasive and unrecognized infection state that must be considered a global epidemic.
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Role of Chronic Bacterial and Viral Infections in Neurodegenerative,
Neurobehavioural, Psychiatric, Autoimmune and Fatiguing Illnesses
Garth L. Nicolson and Jorg Haier, British Journal of Medical
Practitioners, 2010;3(1):301.
Abstract
Chronically ill patients with neurodegenerative and neurobehavioural and psychiatric diseases commonly have systemic and central nervous system bacterial and viral infections. In addition, other chronic illnesses where neurological manifestations are routinely found, such as fatiguing and autoimmune diseases, Lyme disease and Gulf War illnesses, also show systemic bacterial and viral infections that could be important in disease inception, progression or increasing the types/severities of
signs and symptoms.
Evidence of Mycoplasma species, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Borrelia burgdorferi, human herpesvirus-
1, -6 and -7 and other bacterial and viral infections revealed high infection rates in the above illnesses that were not found in controls. Although the specific roles of chronic infections in various diseases and their pathogeneses have not been carefully determined, the data suggest that chronic bacterial and/or viral infections are common features of progressive chronic diseases.
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Part 1
Evidence of Chronic Infection
Daniel J. Cameron, "Proof That Chronic Lyme Disease Exists,"
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases, vol. 2010,
Article ID 876450, 4 pages, 2010. doi:10.1155/2010/876450
Research Article - Abstract
The evidence continues to mount that Chronic Lyme Disease (CLD) exists and must be addressed by the medical community if solutions are to be found. Four National Institutes of Health (NIH) trials validated the existence and severity of CLD. Despite the evidence, there are physicians who continue to deny the existence and severity of CLD, which can hinder efforts to find a solution. Recognizing CLD could facilitate efforts to avoid diagnostic delays of two years and durations of illness of 4.7 to 9 years described in the NIH trials.
The risk to society of emerging antibiotic-resistant organisms should be weighed against the societal risks associated with failing to treat an emerging population saddled with CLD. The mixed long-term outcome in children could also be examined. Once we accept the evidence that CLD exists, the medical community should be able to find solutions. Medical professionals should be encouraged to examine whether: (1) innovative treatments for early LD might prevent CLD, (2) early diagnosis of CLD might result in better treatment outcomes, and (3) more effective treatment regimens can be developed for CLD patients who have had prolonged illness and an associated poor quality of life.
Full-Text HTML:
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ipid/2010/876450.html
Antigens of Borrella burgdorferi Recognized during Lyme Disease - Appearance of a New Immunoglobulin M Response and Expansion of the Immunoglobulin G Response Late in the Illness
Joseph E. Craft, Duncan K. Fischer, Grant T. Shimamoto, and Allen C. Steere Departments of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry,
Yale
University
School of Medicine,
New Haven,
Connecticut
06510
Abstract
Using immunoblots, we identified proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi bound by IgM and IgG antibodies during Lyme disease. In 12 patients with early disease alone, both the IgM and IgG responses were restricted primarily to a 41-kD antigen. This limited response disappeared within several months. In contrast, among six patients with prolonged illness, the IgM response to the 41-kD protein sometimes persisted for months to years, and late in the illness during arthritis, a new IgM response sometimes developed to a 34-kD component of the organism. The IgG response in these patients appeared in a characteristic sequential pattern over months to years to as many as 11 spirochetal antigens. The appearance of a new IgM response and the expansion of the IgG response late in the illness, and the lack of such responses in patients with early disease alone,suggest that B. burgdorferi remains alive throughout illness.
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Borrelia burgdorferi detected by culture and PCR in clinical relapse of disseminated Lyme borreliosis.
Department of Medicine, Turku University Central Hospital, Finland. jarmo.oksi@utu.fi
Abstract
A total of 165 patients with disseminated Lyme borreliosis (diagnosed in 1990-94, all seropositive except one culture-positive patient) were followed after antibiotic treatment, and 32 of them were regarded as having a clinically defined treatment failure. Of the 165 patients, 136 were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) during the follow-up. PCR was positive from the plasma of 14 patients 0-30 months after discontinuation of the treatment, and 12 of these patients had a clinical relapse. In addition, Borrelia burgdorferi was cultured from the blood of three patients during the follow-up. All three patients belonged to the group with relapse, and two of them were also PCR positive. This report focuses on the 13 patients with clinical relapse and culture or PCR positivity. Eight of the patients had culture or PCR-proven initial diagnosis, the diagnosis of the remaining five patients was based on positive serology only. All 13 patients were primarily treated for more than 3 months with intravenous and/or oral antibiotics (11 of them received intravenous ceftriaxone, nine for 2 weeks, one for 3 weeks and one for 7 weeks, followed by oral antibiotics). The treatment caused only temporary relief in the symptoms of the patients. All but one of them had negative PCR results immediately after the first treatment. The patients were retreated usually with intravenous ceftriaxone for 4-6 weeks. None of them was PCR positive after the retreatment. The response to retreatment was considered good in nine patients. We conclude that the treatment of Lyme borreliosis with appropriate antibiotics for even more than 3 months may not always eradicate the spirochete. By using PCR, it is possible to avoid unnecessary retreatment of patients with 'post-Lyme syndrome' and those with 'serological scars' remaining detectable for months or years after infection.
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Lack of Prevalence of EM Lyme Disease Rash
Early Lyme disease: a flu-like illness without erythema migrans.
Feder HM Jr, Gerber MA, Krause PJ, Ryan R, Shapiro ED.
Department of Family Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington 06030.
Abstract
The existence of a form of early Lyme disease characterized by a flu-like illness without erythema migrans is controversial. To confirm the existence and define the clinical characteristics of the flu-like illness without erythema migrans of localized Lyme disease, the authors studied patients from a Lyme disease endemic area of Connecticut who visited their primary care physicians with an undefined flu-like illness. Patients kept a diary of their symptoms. Acute and convalescent sera were obtained. The diagnosis of Lyme disease was based on the appearance of IgM or IgG antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi as demonstrated by both enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblot assay. Twenty-four untreated patients were studied. In five patients acute serologic evidence of Lyme disease developed. The flu-like illness in these five patients was characterized by fever and fatigue and resolved spontaneously in 5 to 21 days. Symptoms recurred in three of these five patients. The existence of a flu-like illness without erythema migrans of early Lyme disease has been clearly established. Prospective, controlled studies are needed to better define its incidence, characteristics, and prognosis so that appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies can be developed.
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High Tick Infection rates are Widespread
Evolution of Northeastern and Midwestern Borrelia burgdorferi, United
States.
Emerging Infectious Disease, 2010 Jun;16(6):911-7.
Brisson D, Vandermause MF, Meece JK, Reed KD, Dykhuizen DE.
Abstract
The per capita incidence of human Lyme disease in the northeastern United States is more than twice that in the Midwest. However, the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, in the tick vector is nearly identical in the 2 regions. The disparity in human Lyme disease incidence may result from a disparity in the human invasiveness of the bacteria in the Northeast and Midwest caused by fundamentally different evolutionary histories.
Free full text available:
http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/6/911.htm
"The Lyme Disease Spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in Tick Species Collected ... in the Warren and Barren Counties of South Central Kentucky"
Tackett, Kristina
A total of 976 ticks were collected. Three different species were obtained from raccoons; Dermacentor variabilis, Amblyomma americanum, and Ixodes sp. Dermacentor variabilis was the only tick species found on opossums. Twenty-five percent (163/642) of the tick DNA samples were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi. Prevalence of B. burgdorferi by tick species was 24.4% (141/577) in D. variabilis, 40.6% (13/32) in A. americanum, and 27.6% (8/29) in I. scapularis. In the present study, 15.7% (8/51) of the total raccoon blood samples examined by PCR were positive for B. burgdorferi, while no opossum blood samples were positive. The high prevalence of B. burgdorferi in ticks common to raccoons and opossums observed in this study, as well as in a tick species that aggressively bites humans in the southeast U. S. (A. americanum), creates concern that there are ample opportunities for people to come in contact with the infected ticks on these animals.
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Other Ways the Disease is Transmitted Besides Ticks
Disease Caused By Insect Bites Can Be Transmitted To Children At Birth,
NC State Researcher Finds
Tracey Peake, News Services
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
919.515.6142
A North Carolina State University researcher has discovered that bacteria transmitted by fleas - and potentially ticks - can be passed to human babies by the mother, causing chronic infections and raising the possibility of bacterially induced birth defects.
Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt, professor of internal medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences, is among the world's leading experts on Bartonella, a bacteria that is maintained in nature by fleas, ticks and other biting insects, but which can be transmitted by infected cats and dogs as well. The most commonly known Bartonella-related illness is cat scratch disease, caused by B. henselae, a strain of Bartonella that can be carried in a cat's blood for months to years. Cat scratch disease was thought to be a self-limiting, or "one-time" infection; however, Breitschwerdt'
s previous work discovered cases of children and adults with chronic, blood-borne Bartonella infections - from strains of the bacteria that are most often transmitted to cats (B. henselae) and dogs (B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii) by fleas and other insects.
In his most recent case study, Breitschwerdt'
s research group tested blood and tissue samples taken over a period of years from a mother, father and son who had suffered chronic illnesses for over a decade. Autopsy samples from their daughter - the son's twin who died shortly after birth - contained DNA evidence of B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffi infection, which was also found in the other members of the family.
Both parents had suffered recurring neurological symptoms including headaches and memory loss, as well as shortness of breath, muscle weakness and fatigue before the children were born. In addition, their 10-year-old son was chronically ill from birth and their daughter died due to a heart defect at nine days of age.
Results of the parents' medical histories and the microbiological tests indicated that the parents had been exposed to Bartonella prior to the birth of the twins, and finding the same bacteria in both children, one shortly after birth and the other 10 years later, indicates that they may have become infected while in utero.
"This is yet more evidence that Bartonella bacteria cause chronic intravascular infections in people with otherwise normal immune systems, infections that can span a decade or more," Breitschwerdt says. "Also this new evidence supports the potential of trans-placental infection and raises the possibility that maternal infection with these bacteria might also cause birth defects."
The Department of Clinical Sciences is part of NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Breitschwerdt is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center.
Source:
http://news.
ncsu.edu/
uncategorized/
bartonella/
Benefit of Courses of Antibiotics Beyond Two Months
Macrolide therapy of chronic Lyme Disease
Donta ST. Med Sci Monit .2003 Nov ;9 (11):PI136-42. PMID : 14586290
235 patients with a multi-symptom complex typical of chronic Lyme disease, ie fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and neurocognitive dysfunction and with serologic reactivity against B.burgdorferi were treated with a macrolide antibiotic (eg clarithromycin) and hydroxychloroquine. Eighty % of patients had self-reported improvement of 50% or more at the end of 3 months. After 2 months of treatment, 20% of patients felt markedly improved (75–100% of normal); after 3 months of treatment, 45% were markedly improved. Improvement frequently did not begin until after several weeks of therapy. There were no differences among the three macrolide antibiotics used. Patients who had been on hydroxychloroquine or macrolide antibiotic alone had experienced little or no improvement. Compared to patients ill for less than 3 years, the onset of improvement was slower, and the failure rate higher in patients who were ill for longer time periods.
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Research