Lots and lots of important info!

 

I want to catch you up on miscellaneous exciting news in the world of Lyme research, so this is a bit of a hodgepodge post.

 

1) A recent paper in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, written by Judith Miklossy, makes an excellent case for Alzheimer's being a disease caused by spirochetes!  Believe it or not, Lyme and syphilis aren't the only spirochetes implicated in this....even DENTAL spirochetes are included as probable causal agents of dementia! 

 

Here is the abstract, plus a link to the entire paper:

Alzheimer's disease - a neurospirochetosis.

It is established that chronic spirochetal infection can cause slowly progressive dementia, brain atrophy and amyloid deposition in late neurosyphilis. Recently it has been suggested that various types of spirochetes, in an analogous way to Treponema pallidum, could cause dementia and may be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we review all data available in the literature on the detection of spirochetes in AD and critically analyze the association and causal relationship between spirochetes and AD following established criteria of Koch and Hill. The results show a statistically significant association between spirochetes and AD (P = 1.5 x 10-17, OR = 20, 95% CI = 8-60, N = 247). When neutral techniques recognizing all types of spirochetes were used, or the highly prevalent periodontal pathogen Treponemas were analyzed, spirochetes were observed in the brain in more than 90% of AD cases. Borrelia burgdorferi was detected in the brain in 25.3% of AD cases analyzed and was 13 times more frequent in AD compared to controls. Periodontal pathogen Treponemas (T. pectinovorum, T. amylovorum, T. lecithinolyticum, T. maltophilum, T. medium, T. socranskii) and Borrelia burgdorferi were detected using species specific PCR and antibodies. Importantly, co-infection with several spirochetes occurs in AD. The pathological and biological hallmarks of AD were reproduced in vitro. The analysis of reviewed data following Koch's and Hill's postulates shows a probable causal relationship between neurospirochetosis and AD. Persisting inflammation and amyloid deposition initiated and sustained by chronic spirochetal infection form together with the various hypotheses suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of AD a comprehensive entity. As suggested by Hill, once the probability of a causal relationship is established prompt action is needed. Support and attention should be given to this field of AD research. Spirochetal infection occurs years or decades before the manifestation of dementia. As adequate antibiotic and anti-inflammatory therapies are available, as in syphilis, one might prevent and eradicate dementia. 

Please read and re-read that last sentence in the abstract!! With proper antibiotic treatment "...one might prevent and eradicate dementia"!  That is FANTASTIC news indeed! 

 

If only the medical world as a whole will pay attention to this paper.....?  That is the $64,000.00 question, unfortunately.  I hope the IDSA won't try to stand in the way of treating dementia with long-term antibiotics!! 

 

2)  Everything you thought you knew about cyst busters is wrong!!  This is the title of a post by LymeMD, a fellow blogger who is a LLMD in Germantown, MD.  He discusses a new study by Eva Sapi that shows that Tigecycline and Tindamax reduce both spirochetal and round body (cystic) forms of Lyme by ~90%!  WOO-HOO!!  I don't know about you, but I'm so jazzed by this!  I will be talking to my doctor for sure!

 

Of course this is not the end of the story.....biofilms remain a big issue.  It is very very difficult to kill bacteria that are protected by a biofilm and Lyme definitely uses biofilms to avoid antibiotics and preserve itself.  Still, the results of the Sapi study are extremely interesting, showing exactly which antibiotics are (or are not) effective against the spirochetal and cystic forms of Lyme.

 

3) Tracking Lyme disease in dogs may help prevent Lyme in humans. This is from a news article in HealthDay: a recent study by a team led by Dr. Paul Mead reveals that when 1% or fewer dogs test positive for Lyme, the risk for human infection is relatively low.  But when 5% or more dogs in an area have Lyme, the risk for humans to contract Lyme disease is high. 

 

4) This same news article also discussed another study from researchers in Germany which says that pastures with domestic livestock such as cows and goats have fewer ticks in general and fewer ticks with Lyme disease!  Let's go get us some cows!! :)