Friday, April 19, 2024

Breakthrough In Lyme Disease Treatment

Must read

Doctors Miraculous Remedy For Nonstop Coughs Is Curing People With A Youtube Video

Lyme Disease Treatment Medical Breakthrough

Habit Cough the name for a cough without a cause has been cured through a YouTube video relying mostly on the power of suggestion. While this may seem a little sketchy, many people with habit cough have no underlying respiratory condition of any kind, and therefore an ounce of suggestion may beat a cure.

  • TAGS

Biorepositories And Research Cohorts

Well-characterized samples are an essential tool to help researchers develop and validate new diagnostic tests and to better understand the complexities of LD. Well-characterized sample sets can benefit medical providers, test developers, and the public at risk for LD . It is critical that sample users understand the criteria used to enroll participants, how samples were collected and stored, and what additional clinical and testing data may be available. Additional benefits can be realized when multiple sample users are using the same well-characterized sample sets. Current sample sets available for researchers include the CDC Lyme Serum Repository , the Lyme Disease Biobank , and samples from the Studies of Lyme Immunology and Clinical Events at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additionally, some investigators also have their own sample collections with, in some cases, blood samples, skin biopsy specimens and synovial fluid which form the basis for collaborative studies .

Lyme Disease Biobank

Lyme Disease Research Center

Long Island Outdoor Worker Cohort

How Is Lyme Disease Treated

Because the Lyme spirochete is a bacterium, it can be treated with antibiotics. The antibiotic of choice is doxycycline, followed by amoxicillin, then azithromycin. Treatment lasts for 4 weeks. Occasionally, the initial infection will recur, or the pet will become re-infected by being bitten by another infected tick.

You May Like: Tahiti Nail Spa East Lyme

Medical Breakthroughs And Treatments In 2021 To Beat Cancer Alzheimers Diabetes & More

Whether a deadly disease like cancer and Alzheimers or a lifelong affliction like diabetes, eczema, or arthritis, 2021 has been a year of breakthroughs and advancements.

Beyond COVID-19 and the developments of the mRNA vaccines created to halt the pandemic, medical researchers around the world continued to focus on the long-entrenched problems that have plagued our health for centuries.

Here are some of the top Health stories from 2021:

Breakthrough In Lyme Disease Treatment

Lyme Disease: Breakthrough Could Lead to Better Treatments

Previously, I talked about ticks and how to identify, prevent, and be aware of what we should be looking out for. I saw recently that in the Staunton paper, The News Leader, that theres been a breakthrough in Lyme disease treatment.

Brandon Jutras, a biochemist and an assistant professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, discovered the cellular component that contributes to Lyme arthritis which is extremely painful and the most common stage symptom of Lyme disease. Having this research now, it could provide a new way to diagnose Lyme disease and Lyme arthritis. Jutras said,

This discovery will help researchers improve diagnostic tests and may lead to new treatment options for patients suffering with Lyme arthritis..This is an important finding and we think that it has major implications for many manifestations of Lyme disease, not just Lyme arthritis.

Jutras states that nothing significant in science is accomplished without collaboration. Dr. Allen Steere, a Harvard doctor who originally identified Lyme disease in the 1970s, helped Jutras with his research and provided access to patients samples.

For AMR News, Im Abby Dufour.

Read Also: Lyme Disease And Red Meat

How Can I Prevent My Dog From Getting Lyme Disease

The key to prevention is keeping your dog from being exposed to ticks. Ticks are found in grassy, wooded, and sandy areas. They find their way onto an animal by climbing to the top of a leaf, blade of grass, or short trees, especially cedar trees. Here they wait until their sensors detect an approaching animal on which to crawl or drop. Keeping animals from thick underbrush reduces their exposure to ticks. Dogs should be kept on trails when walked near wooded or tall grass areas. Vaccination against Lyme disease is recommended for pets that live in endemic areas or that travel to areas where Lyme disease is prevalent.

“Vaccination against Lyme disease is recommended for pets that live in endemic areas or that travel to areas where Lyme disease is prevalent.”

What Is The Best Way To Treat Lyme Disease

The first-line of treatment for adults diagnosed with Lyme disease is doxycycline, a tetracycline antibiotic. Other antibiotics that have activity against Borrelia include the cephalosporin Ceftin and the penicillin-like antibiotic amoxicillin. In children under the age of 12, amoxicillin is preferred to doxycycline because of the possible side effects of doxycycline in small children. The mainstay of treatment is with oral antibiotics, but intravenous antibiotics are sometimes indicated for more difficult to treat cases such as meningitis, late Lyme arthritis, or neurologic-Lyme disease.

For early disseminated Lyme disease, which may occur when a Lyme infection goes untreated, oral antibiotics are recommended for symptoms such as facial palsy and abnormal heart rhythm. Intravenous antibiotics are recommended if a person has meningitis, inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, or more severe heart problems.

In late-stage Lyme disease, a patient may receive oral or intravenous antibiotics. Patients with lingering arthritis would receive standard arthritis treatment.

For patients who are not able to tolerate either of amoxicillin, doxycycline, or cefuroxime, the macrolides azithromycin, clarithromycin, or erythromycin may be used instead. Although they have a lower efficacy compared to the latter.

Bockenstedt, L., & Wormser, G. . Review: Unraveling Lyme Disease. Arthritis & Rheumatology, 66, 2313-2323. doi: 10.1002/art.38756

Read Also: Lyme Disease In Dogs Treatment

Testing For Kidney Disease

Tests to diagnose kidney disease include complete blood count, serum biochemistry, and urinalysis. These blood tests will determine if your pet is anemic, determine white blood cell counts, measure blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and electrolytes. A urinalysis is essential for the proper interpretation of the urea and creatinine values in the serum biochemistry profile and may also provide important clues to the possible underlying cause of kidney disease. A urinalysis will also determine the specific gravity, pH, presence of blood in the urine, and the amount of protein in the urine. An evaluation of the urine sediment will determine the presence of red blood cells, white blood cells, bacteria, crystalline material, and cellular casts all of which provide information to determine the underlying cause of kidney disease in your pet. Further diagnostic tests may be recommended based on the results of these initial screening tests.

Azlocillin Comes Out On Top

Researchers make breakthrough that could lead to Lyme disease cure

The drug, which is not on the market, was tested in mouse models of Lyme disease at seven-day, 14-day and 21-day intervals and found to eliminate the infection. For the first time, azlocillin was also shown to be effective in killing drug-tolerant forms of B. burgdorferi in lab dishes, indicating that it may work as a therapy for lingering symptoms of Lyme disease.

Pothineni and Rajadas have patented the compound for the treatment of Lyme disease and are working with a company to develop an oral form of the drug. Researchers plan to conduct a clinical trial.

Rajadas is also a professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the University of California-San Francisco.

Other Stanford co-authors are Hari-Hara S. K. Potula, PhD, senior research scientist postdoctoral scholars Aditya Ambati, PhD, and Venkata Mallajosyula, PhD senior research scientist Mohammed Inayathullah, PhD and intern Mohamed Sohail Ahmed.

A researcher at Loyola College in India also contributed to the work.

The study was funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation and Laurel STEM Fund.

  • Tracie White

Also Check: Old Lyme Shores Homes For Sale

Breakthrough Paves Way For New Lyme Disease Treatment

by Virginia Tech

B. burgdorferi

Virginia Tech biochemist Brandon Jutras has discovered the cellular component that contributes to Lyme arthritis, a debilitating and extremely painful condition that is the most common late stage symptom of Lyme disease.

Jutras found that as the Lyme-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi multiplies, it sheds a cellular component called peptidoglycan that elicits a unique inflammatory response in the body.

“This discovery will help researchers improve diagnostic tests and may lead to new treatment options for patients suffering with Lyme arthritis,” said Jutras, the lead author on the study. “This is an important finding, and we think that it has major implications for many manifestations of Lyme disease, not just Lyme arthritis.”

Reported incidences of Lyme disease, the most reported vector-borne disease in the country, have increased by more than 6,000 percent in the past 15 years in the state of Virginia. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually in the United States. Scientists predict that the number of people who become infected with Lyme will increase as our climate continues to change.

Jutrasan assistant professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Instituteand his collaborators recently published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What Are The Clinical Signs Of Lyme Disease

Some people with Lyme disease develop a characteristic bull’s-eye rash at the site of the bite within three to thirty days. If this occurs, the disease can be easily diagnosed at an early stage.

However, signs of Lyme disease are more difficult to detect in animals than in people. The characteristic rash does not develop in dogs or cats. In fact, Lyme disease is practically unheard of in cats.

“Affected dogs have been described as if they were walking on eggshells.”

Many dogs affected with Lyme disease are taken to a veterinarian because they seem to be experiencing generalized pain and have stopped eating. Affected dogs have been described as if they were walking on eggshells. Often these pets have high fevers. Dogs may also begin limping. This painful lameness often appears suddenly and may shift from one leg to another. If untreated, it may eventually disappear, only to recur weeks or months later.

Some pets are infected with the Lyme disease organism for over a year before they finally show symptoms. By this time, the disease may be widespread throughout the body. Non-specific signs which may indicate that Lyme disease is affecting the kidneys include vomiting, lethargy, anorexia , and weight loss. The kidney form of the disease is less common, but often fatal.

Don’t Miss: Side Effects Of Lyme Disease In Humans

Does Every Tick Bite Cause Lyme

Not every tick bite will cause this disease. However, as the pathways of bacteria are numerous, it has the potential to become epidemic in the world as of today.

Besides ticks, Lyme bacteria can be transmitted from all creatures that suck blood such as fleas and mosquitoes, and it is mostly seen in wild animals, mammals, and birds in nature, and in cats and dogs in cities.

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES:

Holistic Lyme Practitioner Mentorship Informational Meeting

Treatment Breakthrough for Lyme Disease in 2021 ...

Online via ZoomFree!

The Holistic Lyme Practitioner Mentorship is the only in-depth practitioner training in the holistic treatment of Lyme and complex chronic disease.

Register HERE to learn about joining our community of practitioners who are leading the way in healing naturally from complex illness. Together, were redefining whats possible for our patients.

  • Thoulouze MI, Alcover A. Can viruses form biofilms? Trends Microbiol. 2011 Jun 19:257-62. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2011.03.002. Epub 2011 Mar 31. PMID: 21458997.
  • Lopez MA, Nguyen HT, Oberholzer M, Hill KL. Social parasites. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2011 14:642-648. doi:10.1016/j.mib.2011.09.012
  • Spoering AL, Lewis K. Biofilms and planktonic cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa have similar resistance to killing by antimicrobials. J Bacteriol. 2001 183:6746-6751. doi:10.1128/JB.183.23.6746-6751.2001
  • Del Pozo JL, Rouse MS, Patel R. Bioelectric effect and bacterial biofilms. A systematic review. Int J Artif Organs. 2008 31:786-795. doi:10.1177/039139880803100906
  • Feng J, Zhang S, Shi W, Zubcevik N, Miklossy J, Zhang Y. Selective Essential Oils from Spice or Culinary Herbs Have High Activity against Stationary Phase and Biofilm < i> Borrelia burgdorferi< /i> . Front Med . 2017 4:169.
  • Recommended Reading: What Kind Of Antibiotics Treat Lyme Disease

    Scientists Find Promising New Treatment For Lyme Disease

    A new study gives hope that an effective treatment for Lyme disease may be available in the future. The new treatment involves the drugs cefotaxime and azlocillin.

    The new paper appears in the Nature journal Scientific Reports .

    Lyme disease affects nearly 300,000 people a year in the United States and around 230,000 people a year in Europe, according to an article in the Journal of Public Health .

    Bacteria belonging to the group Borrelia burgdorferi cause Lyme disease. Most people develop it after being bitten by a tick that carries the bacteria.

    Approximately 6080% of people with Lyme disease develop a circular red skin rash called erythema migrans around the infected tick bite, and some also develop flu-like symptoms.

    Most people develop the rash within 4 weeks of being bitten, but it can appear up to 3 months afterward.

    of people with the disease later develop symptoms of fatigue, pain in their muscles, joints or nerves, and cognitive impairment.

    These symptoms can continue for months or even years after their initial infection.

    Researchers have suggested that this may because of drug-tolerant persisters, a group of bacterial cells that survive the initial dose of antibiotics.

    Others believe its an immune disorder caused by bacteria during the first exposure, which causes a perpetual inflammation condition. Whatever the cause, the pain for patients is still very real.

    Azlocillin An Amazing Compound

    The study team first tested to see whether different doses of the drugs could kill drug-tolerant borrelia bacteria grown on laboratory plates better than a standard Lyme disease antibiotic .

    They carried out each experiment three times in triplicate . The team tested the drugs on different ages of bacteria, colonies that were 3 days old and growing rapidly, and colonies that were 710 days old and had reached a growth plateau.

    At high concentrations, both drugs could kill all the drug-resistant borrelia cells and outperformed the standard Lyme disease antibiotic. When the study team tested the drugs at lower doses, azlocillin outperformed the standard antibiotic and cefotaxime, which left 20% of the drug-resistant cells alive.

    The researchers tested the drugs in a small number of laboratory-bred mice that they infected with the bacteria. They treated the mice at different stages of the disease at 7, 14, and 21 days after infection.

    They gave each mouse a daily dose of either azlocillin, cefotaxime, or the standard treatment for Lyme disease for 5 days. They cultured the mouse organs and checked for live bacteria using microscopy and genetic testing 2 days after the last dose.

    The researchers found that both the standard treatment and azlocillin completely cleared the infection in the early stages of the disease, while cefotaxime did not.

    We have been screening potential drugs for 6 years, Venkata Raveendra Pothineni, Ph.D., the lead study author says.

    Read Also: Does Lyme Disease Cause Headaches

    News: Breakthrough Test Evaluates Drugs For Lyme Treatment

    Supported in part by a research grant from LymeDisease.org, scientists at Johns Hopkins have developed a test to help determine which drugs are most effective against Lyme disease.

    Press release from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Nov. 3, 2014:

    Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed a test they say will allow them to test thousands of FDA-approved drugs to see if they will work against the bacteria that causes tick-borne Lyme disease.

    The researchers, reporting Nov. 3 in the journal PLOS ONE, say doctors and patients are desperate for new treatments for Lyme disease, which in many people is cleared up with a few weeks of antibiotics but, in some, lingers long after completion of the standard drug regimen. Until now, it has been very difficult to determine on a large scale which drugs work against these lingering Borrelia burgdorferi the bacteria that cause Lyme disease hampering new drug discovery for the organism.

    Its superior to the current gold standard for testing Borrelia viability, Zhang says. This could become be the new gold standard.

    Genomic Insights From Borreliaceae Lineages

    Symptoms Of Lymes Disease & Treatment – Randy

    Between 1982 and 2010, the B. burgdorferi species complex, known as B. burgdorferi sensu lato, steadily expanded from 1 to 18 species as isolates from tick vectors, their hosts, and patient samples were characterized . A subset of these species are associated with human disease. B. burgdorferi sensu stricto in the USA, as well as B. afzelii and B. garinii in Eurasia are the most common agents of LD in the Northern hemisphere. Cases of LD in Europe are also caused by Bb and B. bavariensis , but are less common. B. spielmanii , B. bisettiae , and B. lusitaniae have been identified in human specimens but their clinical importance is less clear. B. valaisiana has been identified in human specimens , but others have recently provided compelling reasons why existing evidence does not support it being considered a human pathogen . Additional species have been identified in tick vectors or their hosts, but not in patient samples.

    Recommended Reading: What Does Lyme Disease Rash Look Like

    Preventative Measures For Lyme

    The vaccine for Lyme disease has not been produced since 2002. Places with tick infestation and ticks and direct contact with ticks should be avoided. High grass and leaves, shrubs and forest areas should be avoided. In such places, you should walk from the center of the roads.

    Repellents containing 20-30% DEET should be used appropriately.

    Clothing and tent equipment containing 0.5% permethrin should be used.

    If a tick attached to the skin is found, the tick should be removed as quickly as possible without panicking. To do this, fine-tip tweezers should be used to grasp the tick as close to the surface of the skin as possible. When removing the tick, it must be lifted straight up without bending or shaking it. If there is a part, such as the mouth of the tick left in the skin, it should be removed with tweezers a well. If the remaining parts cannot be removed easily, the skin should be allowed to heal.

    After the tick has been removed, the tick bite area and hands should be thoroughly cleaned with alcohol, iodine or soap.

    Tick should never be crushed with fingers.

    If a rash or fever develops within a few weeks after removing a tick, seek medical advice. The doctor should be informed about the tick bite history.

    More articles

    Popular Articles