Tick Borne Disease Radio

The Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center was established in April 30, 2007 in a joint collaboration between Columbia University, Time for Lyme, Inc. (a volunteer not-for-profit activist organization), and the LDA. The center has some very worthwhile goals which include:

• Comparing Laboratory Test Accuracy
• Specimen Bank (blood/CSF from PLDS patients AND cerebral tissue from deceased)
• Evaluating SPECT Brain scans as a diagnostic tool
• Establishing a neuro-cognitive profile for Lyme disease
• Neurimaging studies
• Biomarker research as a diagnostic tool
• Training Fellowships(2 Post doc positions and 2 summer MD internships)

Collecting cerebral tissues is a great idea! I would suggest expanding the specimen bank to include other tissue types, urine, skin punch, and fat. The establishment of a dedicated center at a major research university is a huge accomplishment. I encourage you to learn more about the center by reading their website at http://www.columbia-lyme.org

The Interview:Read more

"The Current", a radio program broadcast in Canada and Sirius, recently interviewed several Lyme specialists. Canadian Doctor Maureen McShane contracted Lyme Disease and a went through an aggressive treatment regimen and now has devoted her practice to Lyme Disease. She suffered a great deal and has strong opinions about co-infections and Chronic Lyme Disease. What she experienced is normally called late-stage Lyme disease, the dangers are debilitating symptoms, misdiagnoses, and a potentially fatal outcome. When patients experience non-resolution of symptoms after treatment the accepted term for the disease state is "Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" or PLDS.

Although each Lyme patients story is unique, Doctor McShane's story struck me as quintessential. Listen to how she describes symptoms for late-stage neurological Lyme.

Link to full interview page

Link to MP3
(The interviews start after the over-population teaser)Read more

"Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases" is a new scientific journal published by Elsevier GmbH. The journal comes out quarterly and is already in its second issue. The journal focuses on tick biology, tick ecology, tick-borne pathogens, and tick-borne diseases of animals and humans. The first issue contained 1 Editorial, 2 Mini Reviews, 6 Regular Papers, 1 Short Communication, and 1 Obituary.

Read more

Three new grant opportunities totalling $800k are available through the CDC to improve upon the two-tier diagnostic regime for Lyme Disease and to study Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PLDS). Each are small steps in the right direction. Put your applications in by April 14th!

Link to Diagnostic Grants

Link to PLDS Grant

The PLDS grant is an R01 type grant. Typically R01's may be followed up by 4 more years of funding, so the opportunity is larger than it seems. Often this initial work can lead to larger opportunities but to have a shot at the R01 you must already have done some interesting work into PLDS or have an applicable semi-developed technology.

I wish the amounts of the grants were higher but don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Do you know who won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine? Three telomerase researchers. Telomeres are the end caps to linear genetic material. Human telomeres are repeating patterns of genetic code that signal the end of a genetic strand. Like bumper strips that signal to a driver the end of the road is approaching. The shortening of telomere length has been linked to the aging process and increase risk of cancer. Antioxidants are hyped as a way to keep telomeres from shortening with age. But not all telomeres are built the same, there exist a type of telomere called a "hairpin telomere." Insted of bumper strips of genetic code that signal the end of the linear segment there is a hairpin turn (covalently closed) that caps the end of the double sided helical strand. This forms a very clear end point for the linear segment but imposes a new challenge during genetic replication.Read more

Tigecycline, sold under the brand name Tygacil by Wyeth (now a part of Pfizer) has been proven to be more effective at killing Borrelia Burgdorferi in-vitro than the most commonly prescribed antibiotic for early stage Lyme, Doxycycline.

I know of two literature papers that have recently been published about Tigecylcine and Borrelia Burgdorferi.

Paper 1: In vitro activity of tigecycline against multiple strains of Borrelia burgdorferi

Paper 2: Destruction of spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi round-body propagules (RBs) by the antibiotic Tigecycline

A word of caution, the first paper was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Wyeth. But it was performed by a respectable Lyme researcher Ben Luft. If you have ever heard Ben Luft talk about Lyme Disease you will be impressed (view the archives of the IDSA Lyme Hearings to see what I mean)Read more

Many studies have sought to determine the length of time a tick must be attached to a host before transmission of Borrelia becomes likely. Doctors are told to avoid prophylactic antibiotics if the tick was not attached for more than 36 hours ("faculty peer reviewed" guidelines). Even though there may be some truth to the timelength argument - I disagree with these guidelines because I feel the danger of letting early Lyme Disease go untreated is far worse then the over prescription of prophylactic antibiotics.

But what is known about the other side of transmission - when Borrelia moves from host back to the tick? I call it "hopping on the bus". There is a paper from 1995 published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology that compared the host-to-tick infection rate of 2-month spirochete-infected mice (early) versus 8-month spirochete-infected mice (late) with varying lengths of tick attachment.

Link to Paper

Read more

Lyme Disease Review Panel Hearing WEBCAST
July 30, 2009, 8:00 AM—5:00 PM

The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) Lyme Disease Review Panel is hosting an all-day hearing as an opportunity for patients, physicians and scientists to present information relevant to the 2006 IDSA Lyme Disease Guidelines. In-person attendance at the hearing is by invitation only. However, the hearing is being broadcast live, in real-time via webcast from the IDSA Website (http://www.idsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=15026) and will be archived on the web for viewing at your convenience.

Attending the webcast is easy! Click here to ensure well in advance of the hearing that your computer meets the technical requirements needed to view the webcast. If you require technical assistance, please e-mail, or call the help desk at: 1-877-867-7300.
On July 30, at 7:40 AM EDT, the virtual doors will open for registration. Following registration, you will be connected to the webcast which will start at 8:00 AM EDT.

The hearing agenda and speaker list follow:
Agenda* (all times listed are Eastern)Read more