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On his facebook page, Dr. H. explains why important new research from UC Davis may explain why many Lyme patients may continue to demonstrate a positive IgM profile and fail to develop a positive IgG profile. This is contrary to the current recommendations of the IDSA, the CDC, and the NYS DOH to physicians to ignore all positive B. burgdorferi IgM profiles after one month of illness.
Dr. H: “Borrelia burdorferi has developed one more strategy to evade the immune system. Nicole Baumgarth and her colleagues at the University of California, Davis, just published a groundbreaking study showing why some people living in endemic areas can continually be exposed to spirochetes and not clear the infection with an adequate immune response.
According to the study done in mice, borrelia is able to rapidly invade the lymph nodes, and cause a destruction of the distinct architecture of the lymph node that helps it to function normally.
"While B cells accumulated in large numbers and made some specific antibodies against B. burgdorferi, they did not form “germinal centers”, structures that are needed for the generation of highly functional and long-lived antibody responses".
Borrelia also subverted a B cell response (B cells produce antibodies to fight infection), and instead, caused T cell independence, leading to an IgM skewed profile (in our practice, we often see many more IgM positive Western blots in patients with chronic persistent Lyme, as opposed to IgG positive Western blots).
These findings suggest that "B. burgdorferi hinders the immune system from generating a response that is fully functional and that can persist and protect after repeat infections”, and suggests a novel evasion strategy for B. burgdorferi by subverting the quality of a strongly induced, potentially protective borrelia-specific antibody response.”
More important information from Dr. H. in the comments section of his Facebook post: Dr. H. - I'm looking into pulsing antibiotics and persister drugs (like those used for TB and Hansen's disease) in Lyme. We are presently accumulating data, but some of the results have been very encouraging in resistant patients. I presented preliminary data last weekend at Omega.
Singer Avril Lavigne recently talked publicly about how she was bedridden for five months due to Lyme disease and thought she “was dying” because she couldn’t eat, talk or move.
By studying the real-time immune response to the bacteria that causes the disease, a University of Toledo researcher is hoping to help create better treatments so that fewer people have to experience what the songstress did.
“What we are trying to figure out is what ‘tricks’ that the bacteria play so that our immune response can’t clear the infection on its own,” said Dr. Mark Wooten, UT associate professor of microbiology and immunology. “If we figure that out, we will have a better idea of what type of vaccine is needed to prevent this disease, which can be quite debilitating in some patients.”. . .
-------------------- KarlaL Posts: 694 | From New Lebanon, NY | Registered: Dec 2010
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