There are many places on the internet that you can go to learn about Lyme and tick-borne diseases. However, just as when you are researching any medical condition, it’s important to understand which resources are reliable. Always seek medical advice from a licensed health provider before making any medical decisions that may affect your health or the health of someone you love.

We have assembled here a list of reliable online resources for you to explore:

 

Published Studies Funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation March 2014 – April 2019

Bay Area Lyme Foundation encourages and funds research to better understand the bacteria that causes Lyme and tick-borne disease and explore novel treatments. These are our published studies:

Molecular testing of serial blood specimens from patients with early Lyme disease during treatment reveals changing co-infection with mixtures of Borrelia burgdorferi genotypes
Journal: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Publication date: April 29, 2019
Authors: Michael R. Mosel, Heather E. Carolan, Alison W. Rebman, Steven Castro, Christian Massire, David J. Ecker, Mark J. Soloski, John N. Aucott, and Mark W. Eshoo
Description: Using PCR and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to monitor B. burgdorferi in early stage Lyme disease patients, B. burgdorferi was detected up to three weeks after the initiation of antibiotic treatment with ratios of co-infecting B. burgdorferi genotypes changing over time.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00237-19

Characterization of Brain Dysfunction Induced by Bacterial Lipopeptides That Alter Neuronal Activity and Network in Rodent Brains
Journal: The Journal of Neuroscience
Publication date: December 12, 2018
Authors: Kwang-Min Kim, Alsu I. Zamaleeva, Youn Woo Lee, M. Rafiuddin Ahmed, Eunkyung Kim, Hye-Ryeon Lee, Venkata Raveendra Pothineni, Juan Tao, Siyeon Rhee, Mithya Jayakumar, Mohammed Inayathullah, Senthilkumar Sivanesan, Kristy Red-Horse, Theo D. Palmer, Jon Park, Daniel V. Madison, Ho-Young Lee and Jayakumar Rajadas
Description: This study demonstrates, for the first time, that lipopeptides associated with Bb cause dysfunction in the brain of mice, offering clues to help us understand the root cause of brain fog in patients with Lyme disease.
Link: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/50/10672

Robust B Cell Responses Predict Rapid Resolution of Lyme Disease
Journal: Frontiers in Immunology
Publication date: July 18, 2018
Authors: Lisa K. Blum, Julia Z. Adamska, Dale S. Martin, Alison W. Rebman, Serra E. Elliott, Richard R. L. Cao, Monica E. Embers, John N. Aucott, Mark J. Soloski and William H. Robinson
Description: The data demonstrate a correlation between initial activation of specific components of the immune response, and a patient’s ability to recover following 21 days of doxycycline.
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01634/full

Using citizen science to describe the prevalence and distribution of tick bite and exposure to tick-borne diseases in the United States
Journal: PLOS ONE
Publication date: July 12, 2018
Authors: Nathan C. Nieto , W. Tanner Porter, Julie C. Wachara, Thomas J. Lowrey, Luke Martin, Peter J. Motyka, Daniel J. Salkeld
Description: The first citizen-scientist study to evaluate the prevalence of disease-carrying ticks throughout the United States, this study found ticks capable of carrying Lyme and other tick-borne diseases in 83 counties (in 24 states) where these ticks had not been previously recorded.
Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199644

Late Disseminated Lyme Disease: Associated Pathology and Spirochete Persistence Posttreatment in Rhesus Macaques
Journal: American Journal of Pathology
Publication date: March 2018 (published online on December 11, 2018)
Authors: Nicholas A. Crossland, Xavier Alvarez, Monica E. Embers
Description: Nonhuman primates serve as the best experimental model for Lyme disease because they have similar genetic make-ups to humans and demonstrate of all three phases of Lyme disease, they were used to investigated the pathology associated with late disseminated Lyme disease (12 to 13 months after tick inoculation) in doxycycline-treated (28 days; 5 mg/kg, oral, twice daily) and untreated rhesus macaques.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2017.11.005

Variable manifestations, diverse seroreactivity and post-treatment persistence in non-human primates exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi by tick feeding
Journal:
PLOS ONE
Publication date: December 13, 2017
Authors: Monica E. Embers , Nicole R. Hasenkampf, Mary B. Jacobs, Amanda C. Tardo, Lara A. Doyle-Meyers, Mario T. Philipp, Emir Hodzic
Description: Persistence of B. burgdorferi was evaluated using xenodiagnosis, bioassays in mice, multiple methods of molecular detection, immunostaining with polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies and an in vivo culture system.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189071

Accuracy of Clinician Suspicion of Lyme Disease in the Emergency Department
Journal: American Academy of Pediatrics
Publication date: December 2017
Authors: Lise E. Nigrovic, Jonathan E. Bennett, Fran Balamuth, Michael N. Levas, Rachel L. Chenard, Alexandra B. Maulden, Aris C. Garro
Description: A cohort of children aged 1 to 21 years were assembled and evaluated for Lyme disease at 1 of the 5 participating emergency departments while treating physicians were asked to estimate the probability of Lyme disease (on a 10-point scale).
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29175973

Identification of new drug candidates against Borrelia burgdorferi using high-throughput screening
Journal: Dove Press, Drug Design Development and Therapy
Publication date: April 1, 2016
Authors: Pothineni VRWagh DBabar MMInayathullah MSolow-Cordero DKim KMSamineni AVParekh MBTayebi LRajadas J
Description: High-throughput screening was done using BacTiter-Glo assay for four compound libraries to identify candidates that stop the growth of B. burgdorferi in vitro.
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27103785

Longitudinal Transcriptome Analysis Reveals a Sustained Differential Gene Expression Signature in Patients Treated for Acute Lyme Disease
Journal: American Society for Microbiology
Publication date: February 12, 2016
Authors: Jerome Bouquet, Mark J. Soloski, Andrea Swei, Chris Cheadle, Scot Federman, Jean-Noel Billaud, Alison W. Rebman, Beniwende Kabre, Richard Halpert, Meher Boorgula, John N. Aucott, Charles Y. Chiu
Description: To gain insights into the molecular basis of acute Lyme disease and the ensuing development of post-treatment symptoms, the study was conducted to analyze a longitudinal transcriptome study of 29 Lyme disease patients (and 13 matched controls) enrolled at the time of diagnosis and followed for up to 6 months.
Link: http://mbio.asm.org/content/7/1/e00100-16

Survey of Ixodes pacificus Ticks in California Reveals a Diversity of Microorganisms and a Novel and Widespread Anaplasmataceae Species
Journal: PLOS One
Publication date: September 16, 2015
Authors: Mark W. Eshoo, Heather E. Carolan, Christian Massire, Danny M. Chou, Chris D. Crowder, Megan A. Rounds, Curtis A. Phillipson, Steven E. Schutzer, David J. Ecker
Description: The study surveyed 982 individual adult nympha from the San Francisco Bay Area, California to test the prevalence of putative pathogens.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135828

Disease Risk & Landscape Attributes of Tick-Borne Borrelia Pathogens in the San Francisco Bay Area, California
Journal: PLOS ONE
Publication date: August 19, 2015
Authors: Daniel J. Salkeld, Nathan C. Nieto, Patricia Carbajales-Dale, Michael Carbajales-Dale, Stephanie S. Cinkovich, Eric F. Lambin
Description: The study investigated spatial patterns of disease risk for two human pathogens in the Borrelia genus–B. burgdorferi and B. miyamotoi–that are transmitted by the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus. Ticks (349 nymphs, 273 adults) were collected at 20 sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134812

Borreliacidal activity of Borrelia metal transporter A (BmtA) binding small molecules by manganese transport inhibition
Journal: Dove Press
Publication date: November 5, 2014
Authors: Dhananjay Wagh, Venkata Raveendra Pothineni, Mohammed Inayathullah, Song Liu, Kwang-Min Kim, Jayakumar Rajadas
Description: Study hypothesized that blocking an Manganese (Mn) transporter could eliminate the Borrelia infection by cutting off access to its metabolizer.
Link: https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S77063

Seasonal activity patterns of the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus, in relation to onset of human Lyme disease in northwestern California
Publication date: October 2014
Journal: Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Authors: Daniel J. Salkeld, Martin B.Castro, Denise Bonilla, Anne Kjemtrup, Vicki L.Kramer, Robert S. Lane, Kerry A. Padgetta
Description: This study demonstrates that tick activity patterns are more extended than previously recognized in northwestern California.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.05.002

Tick-borne Pathogens in Northwestern California, USA
Journal: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Publication date: March 2014
Authors: Daniel J. Salkeld, Stephanie Cinkovich, and Nathan C. Nieto
Description: To investigate Borrelia spp. ecology in California, the study collected adult I. pacificus ticks by dragging a 1-m2 white flannel blanket along vegetation and/or leaf litter in 12 recreational areas in the San Francisco Bay area.
Link: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/3/13-0668_article

 

Persistence Links

Research has shown that 10-20% of Lyme patients have symptoms post-treatment. Many clinicians and scientists believe that the persistence of bacteria is the cause of these lingering symptoms, so, while the CDC calls this “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome,” many experts believe it is more accurate to use the term “chronic Lyme disease.”  These studies demonstrate the existence of persistent infection, giving validity to the term chronic Lyme. Click here.

 

Support Groups

There are many support groups and Meet-Up groups available for Lyme patients around the nation. Please go to www.meetup.com to see if there’s a support group in your area.

If you are a Facebook user, search on Lyme disease or Lyme support group to find the many online groups available.

 

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