posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by cave76:

However, I also have Bart. lurking in the wings all the time. If I could tolerate the quinolones and weren't so afraid of them (getting crippled)---- I'd give them another try.

Maybe I'll wander off to pubmed to see just if bicillin would work on Bart. Anyone have a clue?

---

Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by cave76:
Monty---- I know. I already knew that but thought perhaps someone could find an old 300 year old pubmed article that would give me something to try. LOL

Placebos aren't always a bad thing.

Rif I already tried. Guess how bad that experience was?

---

Ack! Cavey, hang in there, I am sorry that your options are so limited!!!

I saw your post and went straight to work as a researcher, looking for anything else that might treat Bart

(After taking a long nap that is.... I have been on biaxin for the last week, and it is knocking me out, sleeping 11 hours/day whereas before I was fairly well bounding with energy)

Bactrim? Buhner mentions in his Healing Lyme book that he has heard case reports of treatment of Bart by bactrim (or, he is citing Fournier, 1998 on that, without giving a full reference for Fournier, 1998).

I started looking for abstracts and so far only found this old one (1940!) where they treat mice, some of which had bartonella, with Sulfanilamide, to determine its effect on blood production:

EFFECTS OF CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION OF
SULFANILAMIDE ON THE BLOOD

ARTHUR P. RICHARDSON

From the Department of Pharmacology, Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco, Calif.

Received for publication July 24, 1940

Since damage to the blood is one of the outstanding complications accompanying
treatment of bacterial diseases with suifanilamide and related
compounds, it is important to assess for such toxic potentiality not only
those drugs already in use but also any new derivatives which may be introduced.

The production of an easily reproducible anemia in animals (1, 2)
with sulfanilamide and related agents has furnished a convenient means
of studying the hematologic reaction to these drugs under controlled conditions.

Data thus obtained may be useful in clinical treatment, provided
the experimental anemia is similar to that described in man.
In a previous report (1), the production of anemia in mice with sulfanilamide,
sulfapyridine, and diaminodiphenylsuifone was described.

The
results in that report included only the changes in erythrocytes and reticulocytes
during medication of from three to four weeks.

This report presents
more detailed changes in the blood and bone marrow of mice receiving
sulfanilamide for periods up to three months. Briefly, it was found that
the blood picture of mice on continued suifanilamide-medication resembles
in most respects the so called ``slow anemia'' of patients treated with sulfanilamide.

METHODS
White mice of from 15 to 20 grams body weight were fed a diet of powdered
Purina Dog Chow containing appropriate concentrations of sulfanilamide.'
At bi-weekly intervals, groups of mice were sacrificed for determination
of the changes in blood, spleen, and bone marrow. Control groups of mice
fed a diet of unmedicated Purina Dog Chow were sacrificed at four-week
intervals for similar examinations.

Reticulocytes and blood platelets were estimated by the so-called ``wet
cover slip method,'' and differential leukocyte counts were made on blood
obtained from the tail. All other determinations were carried out on blood
obtained from the heart, 0.6 cc. of this blood being kept from clotting by
`The sulfanilamide used was supplied by Abbott Laboratories.
370

I know one llmd who does not use Bactrim because of concerns of its effect on blood producing cells in the bone marrow.

However, many here on lymenet report having great success with bactrim (where are you Charlie? SixKids?)

The rest of the article (skimmed quickly) seems to say that the mice recovered from bartonella, but had that blood damage from treatment with sulfanilamide.

Info on Bactrim:

Bactrim DS Chemical Information

sulfamethoxazole - A broad-spectrum, short-acting sulfanilamide and a synthetic analog of para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) with antibacterial property. Sulfamethoxazole competes with PABA for the bacterial enzyme dihydropteroate synthase, thereby preventing the incorporation of PABA into dihydrofolic acid, the immediate precursor of folic acid.

This leads to an inhibition of bacterial folic acid synthesis and de novo synthesis of purines and pyrimidines, ultimately resulting in cell growth arrest and cell death.

trimethoprim - A synthetic derivative of trimethoxybenzyl-pyrimidine with antibacterial and antiprotozoal properties.

As a pyrimidine inhibitor of bacterial dihydrofolate reductase, trimethoprim binds tightly to the bacterial enzyme, blocking the production of tetrahydrofolic acid from dihydrofolic acid. The antibacterial activity of this agent is potentiated by sulfonamides. (NCI04)
***

Besides Bactrim, the literature says that aminoglycosides, such as gentamicin, are effective: there is a more recent abstract I think AliG posted, on that.

I will keep looking and post anything I find!

Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged |