It is estimated that 20% of patients with Lyme disease (even when treated early) don't get rid of the infection and instead develop chronic symptoms (often ME/CFS) and potentially permanent neurological or cardiac damage. My son and I both fall into this category: he got Lyme in 2007, and I got it in 2008 (in addition to the ME/CFS we already had), and we both require continuous treatment even now to keep symptoms and damage at bay. In his case, he also had co-infections (bartonella and babesia) that went undiagnosed for over three years, making it even more difficult to eradicate the Lyme disease. Other people may have Lyme and/or other tick infections for years, even decades, without being accurately diagnosed or treated and are now stuck with it as a chronic condition.
New research conducted at Mt. Sinai in New York has identified 35 genes that are highly expressed in people with long-term Lyme disease. These exciting new findings could lead to diagnostic biomarkers for long-term Lyme, which is difficult to diagnose and even not believed in by some doctors. It could also potentially lead to new treatments, based on specific RNA levels in the body.
This study was conducted using blood samples from 152 patients with long-term Lyme to measure their immune response and compared to data from 72 patients with early Lyme disease and 44 uninfected controls. Researchers found a unique inflammatory gene signature that differentiated those with chronic Lyme. The researchers plan to repeat the study with additional patients and apply this same new technology to other difficult-to-diagnose diseases (note that these same technologies are currently in use in some ME/CFS studies funded by Open Medicine Foundation).
You can read more about this Lyme disease research in this press release.
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