borrelia Archives - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

One Lyme Patient’s Challenging Quest to Donate Her Body to Science in Her Final Days

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL Spotlight Series

In Puerto Rico, Donating Your Body to Science is Almost Impossible

Luisette Mauras Rodriguez working in the lab at Cornell — Working in the lab at Cornell in 1997

Luisette Mauras Rodriguez is lying in bed at home in Guyana, Puerto Rico, waiting to die. She’s 46 years old, her body ravaged by Lyme, numerous tick-borne coinfections, and a multitude of other hits caused by environmental exposure to toxins like black mold, fungus, mycoplasma, and chikungunya virus. Family members do not understand her illness and laugh at her ‘exaggerations.’ Her husband left her because he fears getting sick and his religious convictions cause him to question the validity of her condition. Her mother, formerly a registered nurse, has abandoned her to her fate. Whenever Luisette gets desperate for help and goes to the ER, they refer her to the psych ward saying her illness is fabricated.

Cornell University and the surrounding woods where she was bitten

A former professional lab technician who worked in pharmaceutical development with US companies like Wyeth, SmithKline Beecham, and IPR Pharmaceuticals, Luisette has one dying wish: to donate her body to the Lyme Disease Biobank (LDB) so that samples from her brain, joints, organs, and tissues will be used to fuel much-needed research into Lyme and tick-borne diseases. She has registered with the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) in Philadelphia to have her body collected after her death, but as of writing this article, staff there are unable to find any medical professional on the island willing to partner with them to ensure this happens.

“We have been unsuccessful in securing anyone for recovery for the donor located in Puerto Rico. It has been very difficult getting anyone to follow up with us on top of the language barrier. We were trying to give the pathology department at the University time to get back to us but they seem to be very busy. The complexity of the recovery also makes it more difficult as well.” — Wauchita Green, Manager, Organ & Tissue Source Sites, NDRI, The National Disease Research Interchange

Bay Area Lyme Foundation Researcher Validates New Approach to Overcome Challenges of Lyme Disease Diagnosis in the Lab

Artem Rogovskyy, PhD, DVM, receiving the ELA award at LymeAid

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bay Area Lyme Foundation Researcher Validates New Approach to Overcome Challenges of Lyme Disease Diagnosis in the Lab

Using samples from the Lyme Disease Biobank, Raman spectroscopy is identified as a potentially more sensitive test for diagnosing Lyme disease

Portola Valley, CA, February 9, 2023 — Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, today announced results of a laboratory study published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology that identifies Raman spectroscopy as a promising diagnostic approach for Lyme disease, a condition that affects nearly 500,000 new patients annually. Conducted by one of Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Emerging Leader Award winners, Artem Rogovskyy, PhD, DVM, along with researchers from Texas A&M University, the study identified Borrelia infection with 88% accuracy, 85% sensitivity, and 90% specificity using Raman spectroscopy, a light-based test commonly used in chemistry labs, to evaluate human blood samples provided by Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Lyme Disease Biobank.

“By identifying a unique spectrum fingerprint to detect Lyme borreliosis faster, Raman spectroscopy has the potential to diagnose the disease earlier,” said Dr. Rogovskyy, associate professor of Veterinary Pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University. “We hope that developing an effective, robust, and rapid diagnostic test will help overcome current challenges in Lyme disease diagnosis.”

The study aims to address the immediate need for more sensitive diagnostics in Lyme disease as the current gold standard diagnostic has been shown to be insensitive in up to 60% of early-stage patients and up to 30% of late-stage patients.

“The lack of an accurate diagnostic test is not only a challenge for clinicians trying to properly diagnose and treat patients, but also makes clinical trials for new treatments difficult,” said Linda Giampa, executive director, Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “Our hope is that new approaches like this one will allow for early detection and treatment of all patients with Lyme disease.”

Functional Medicine and How it Can Help Lyme Patients, Long Covid Patients, and Firefighters

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Sunjya Schweig, MD

Sunjya Schweig, MD is the president and co-founder of the California Center for Functional Medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of his Johns Hopkins studies on herbal medicines for Lyme disease was in the top 1% of viewed articles on Frontiers in Medicine. He explains the basics for functional medicine and how he uses it with tick-borne disease patients, first responders, and long Covid patients. Ticktective Video and Podcast Editor: Kiva Schweig.

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