(Press-News.org) Up to 20% of patients treated for Lyme experience persistent symptoms
Lyme’s post-infection features share some similarities to long COVID-19 and could be due to lingering antigens
Individual differences in immune response to remnants of the Lyme bacterium’s cell wall likely play an important role in patient outcome.
CHICAGO --- Symptoms that persist long after Lyme disease is treated are not uncommon — a 2022 study found that 14% of patients who were diagnosed and treated early with antibiotic therapy would still develop Post Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD). Yet doctors puzzle over the condition’s causes and how to help their patients through symptoms ranging from severe fatigue and cognitive challenges to body pain and arthritis.
Now, Northwestern University scientists believe they know what causes the treated infection to mimic chronic illness: the body may be responding to remnants of the Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacteria that causes Lyme) cell wall, which breaks down during treatment yet lingers in the liver. This matches one theory behind the underlying causes of long COVID-19 in that persisting viral molecules may encourage a strong, albeit unnecessary, immune response, said bacteriologist Brandon L. Jutras.
“Lyme and long COVID-19 are clearly vastly different diseases, but it’s possible that they share a more general mechanism of inappropriate inflammation caused by remnants of a previous infection,” said Jutras, who led the research. “The maladaptive response is a product of an infection, but perhaps not necessarily an active one in all cases.”
Peptidoglycan is a structural feature of virtually all bacterial cells and a common target of antibiotics, including penicillin. The research, to be published April 23 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, tracked the biodistribution of peptidoglycan from different bacteria, in real time, and found that all cell wall material is rapidly shed, but Lyme disease’s peptidoglycan persists for weeks to months.
Lyme arthritis is one of the more common long-term impacts of exposure to Lyme. If a patient has a swollen knee, for instance, it is full of synovial fluid, a natural lubricant found in joints. Jutras said his team looked at the fluid in humans and found that pieces of the peptidoglycan were omnipresent weeks to months after treatment.
“In the context of Lyme arthritis, if you give patients anti-inflammatory, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, they get better,” Jutras said. “Some of these very same patients do not get better after oral and IV antibiotics, which implies there is something unique about how patients respond at a genetic level.”
Jutras, who joined Northwestern faculty last summer, is an associate professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a member of the Center for Human Immunobiology at Northwestern. He has been studying Lyme disease for more than 15 years, beginning in graduate school, and was previously an associate professor at Virginia Tech University.
“Peptidoglycan is kind of like a structural skeleton in virtually all bacteria, acting as a big protective bag for the bacterium,” Jutras said. “Penicillin and amoxicillin and dozens of other drugs target peptidoglycan synthesis because it’s a molecule that is specific to bacteria, it has similar structural features across the kingdom, and it’s essential.”
Lyme’s peptidoglycan, however, is structurally unique, and this difference may be behind its persistence in humans. Instead of looking the same as with other bacteria, the Lyme peptidoglycan is fundamentally distinct, which is facilitated in part by sucking up sugars from its tick vector. Upon bacterial cell death — by antibiotics or the immune system — surviving molecules tend to relocate to the liver, which can’t process the modified peptidoglycan.
Without this modification, it seems likely that the peptidoglycan would clear right away, as in other infections.
“The unusual chemical properties of Borrelia peptidoglycan promote persistence, but it’s the individual patient response to the molecule that likely impacts the overall clinical outcome,” Jutras said. “Some patients will have a more robust or stronger immune response, which could result in a worse disease outcome, while the immune system of others may largely ignore the molecule. So, in essence, it’s not about whether the molecule is there or not, it’s more about how an individual responds to it.”
Jutras hopes the groundbreaking findings will lead to development of more accurate tests, possibly for PTLD patients, and refined treatment options when antibiotics have failed. To effectively stymie PTLD, instead of neutralizing an infection that may no longer exist, efforts are underway to neutralize the inflammatory molecule, including weaponizing monoclonal antibodies to target peptidoglycan for destruction.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R21AI159800, R01AI173256, R01AI178711), the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the Department of Defense (TB220039), the Global Lyme Alliance and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
END
Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome may be driven by remnants of infection
Researchers learn why the body may continue to respond to an invisible threat long after bacterial death
2025-04-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Engineering a robot that can jump 10 feet high – without legs
2025-04-23
Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, Georgia Tech engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop.
Their device, a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, can leap 10 feet high even though it doesn’t have legs. The researchers made it after watching high-speed video of nematodes pinching themselves into odd shapes to fling themselves forward and backward.
The researchers described the soft robot April 23 in Science Robotics. They said their findings could help develop robots capable of jumping across various terrain, at different heights, in multiple directions.
“Nematodes are ...
EMBARGOED: Could this molecule be “checkmate” for coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2?
2025-04-23
A team at UC San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes has developed new drug candidates that show great promise against the virus that causes COVID-19 and potentially other coronaviruses that could cause future pandemics.
In preclinical testing, the compounds performed better than Paxlovid against SARS-CoV-2 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, which periodically causes deadly outbreaks around the world.
“In three years, we’ve moved as fast as a pharmaceutical company would have, from start to finish, developing drug candidates against a totally new pathogen,” said Charles Craik, PhD, UCSF professor ...
Could this molecule be “checkmate” for coronaviruses like SARS- CoV-2?
2025-04-23
This release has been removed upon request of the submitting institution because it is a duplicate of an existing release. Please find the link here to the release: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081239 Please contact Levi Gadye, levi.gadye@ucsf.edu for more information. END ...
Caltech's smart bandage clears new hurdle: monitors chronic wounds in human patients
2025-04-23
Caltech professor of medical engineering Wei Gao and his colleagues are envisioning a smart bandage of the future—a "lab on skin" that could not only help patients and caregivers monitor the status of chronic wounds but also deliver treatment and speed up the healing process for those cuts, incisions, scrapes, and burns that are slow to heal on their own.
In 2023, Gao's team cleared the first hurdle toward achieving that goal by showing that a smart bandage they developed could provide real-time ...
Researchers identify pathway responsible for calciphylaxis, a rare and serious condition
2025-04-23
“Our discovery has found a possible treatment that could specifically target and help patients with this disease”
(Boston)—The global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rising, with more than 800 million people affected worldwide. Vascular diseases in patients with CKD are unique and grouped as uremic vascular diseases. One of them, calciphylaxis, typically affects patients with end-stage, advanced kidney disease. It is a condition characterized by severe, painful and non-healing skin ulcers with no known cure.
For the first time, researchers from Boston University Chobanian ...
FRESH bioprinting brings vascularized tissue one step closer
2025-04-23
Collagen is well-known as an important component of our skin, but its impact is much greater, as it is the most abundant protein in the body, providing structure and support to nearly all tissues and organs. Using their novel Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting technique, which allows for the printing of soft living cells and tissues, Carnegie Mellon’s Feinberg lab has built a first-of-its-kind microphysiologic system, or tissue model, entirely out of collagen. This advancement expands the capabilities of how researchers can study disease and build tissues for therapy, ...
Chinese scientists prove swamp forest collapse linked to human activity
2025-04-23
Chinese scientists have discovered that fragile swamp forests in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region suddenly collapsed around 2.1 thousand years ago (ka)—with human activity as the cause.
The study, led by researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sheds new light on the role of human activity in ecosystem collapse.
Published in Science Advances, the study focuses on Glyptostrobus pensilis (G. pensilis), a critically endangered species of Chinese swamp cypress that once thrived in extensive swamp forests in the PRD. Through palynological (i.e., pollen and ...
London’s low emission zones save lives and money, new study finds
2025-04-23
18.5% reduction in sick leave following LEZ implementation
10.2% decrease in respiratory issues
Annual public health savings of over £37 million
New research from the University of Bath has revealed that Greater London's clean air policies—the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) are not only improving the city’s environment but are also delivering significant measurable public health and economic benefits.
The study, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization which analysed over a decade of data ...
University of Houston engineer reinvents ceramics with origami-inspired 3D printing
2025-04-23
In a breakthrough that blends ancient design with modern materials science, researchers at the University of Houston have developed a new class of ceramic structures that can bend under pressure — without breaking.
Potential applications for this technology range from medical prosthetics to impact-resistant components in aerospace and robotics, where lightweight - but tough - materials are in high demand.
Traditionally known for their brittleness, ceramics often shatter under stress, making them difficult to use in high-impact or adaptive applications. But that may soon change as a team ...
How an antimalarial drug could help fix genetic diseases
2025-04-23
The antimalarial drug mefloquine could help treat genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, as well as some cancers.
In these diseases, a mutation in the genetic code introduces a stop signal in completely the wrong place, leading to the production of a shortened protein. An international team of researchers, including scientists of the University of Groningen, have now demonstrated how the antimalarial drug mefloquine can enhance the effect of aminoglycosides, another class of drugs, to override ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
What are they vaping? Study reveals alarming surge in adolescent vaping of THC, CBD, and synthetic cannabinoids
ECMWF - delivering forecasts over 10 times faster and cutting energy usage by 1000
Brazilian neuroscientist reveals how viral infections transform the brain through microscopic detective work
Turning social fragmentation into action through discovering relatedness
Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find
Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools
Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks
Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems
Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions
Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing
New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture
The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet
Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy
Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab
Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy
Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues
New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children
Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer
It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections
From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine
Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023
No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults
NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders
Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds
University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant
Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research
Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma
Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue
Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species
[Press-News.org] Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome may be driven by remnants of infectionResearchers learn why the body may continue to respond to an invisible threat long after bacterial death