it states there is bacteria still there,which in my book is not PLDS
THE DAVIS STUDY
Barthold and colleagues studied antibiotic treatments for Borrelia burgdorferi infection in laboratory mice.
One group of mice was treated for one month with the antibiotic ceftriaxone, beginning during the first three weeks of infection.
A second group received the same antibiotic for one month, but beginning at four months after infection, representing a chronic infection.
A third group, serving as the control, received only saline for one month, rather than the antibiotic.
When the antibiotic treatments were completed, DNA analysis showed that small numbers of the Lyme disease-causing bacteria remained in the tissues of the antibiotic-treated mice.
Ticks allowed to feed on these infected mice were also able to acquire and transmit the infectious bacteria.
Curiously, despite the apparent viability of the bacteria, they could not be detected by standard laboratory cultures.
The findings support the theory that the bacteria remain viable and that some bacteria evade antibiotic treatment by taking refuge in collagen-rich tissues, skin, ligaments and tendons.
"Our theory is that these remaining bacteria are in a metabolically dormant, non-dividing state," Barthold said. "This would explain why we were unable to culture them.
"In future studies we need to look at the long-term fate of these bacteria," he said. "They seem to be non-dividing.
If so, are they permanently crippled by the antibiotics and eventually would die out, or would they grow back over the long term and cause a recurrence of the disease?"
While the residual bacteria do not appear to cause disease, they may contribute to the persistence of Lyme disease symptoms, the researchers suggested.
"This may explain why some Lyme disease patients recover slowly following antibiotic treatment, exhibiting what has been termed "post-Lyme disease syndrome," Barthold said.
The existence of a small number of sequestered bacteria should not come as a surprise, he added, noting that with disease-causing agents like herpes virus and the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and syphilis, it is not unusual for the infectious organisms to persist at levels that do not actually cause symptoms.
"This is just part of our world of microbes," Barthold said. "Antibiotics are designed to kill large numbers of bacteria -- to knock them down to the point that the body's immune system can get control of the infection."
Bacteria have evolved the means to survive antibiotics in the natural world, he noted. Furthermore, if disease-causing organisms such as Borrelia have evolved the means to escape clearance by the immune system, it is not surprising that the bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment would not be eliminated.
In the case of Lyme disease, the research findings do not suggest that continued use of antibiotics would succeed in getting rid of the lingering bacteria.
"I suspect that if the initial round of antibiotics hasn't eliminated them, it's not likely that a longer regimen of antibiotics would be any more successful,"
Barthold said. "It's more likely that a completely different class of antibiotics would be needed to accomplish that. This laboratory mouse model will allow us to address those possibilities."
---------------------------- Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. ----------------------------
Funding for this study was provided by a U.S. Public Health Service grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Posts: 510 | From NEVERLAND.USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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adamm
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God I hope that they're just spinning the story this
way so they can get more research money.
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