Do remnants of Lyme bacteria cause ongoing brain inflammation?
By Leslie Tate, Tulane University
Jan. 30. 2022
Even after antibiotic treatment, some Lyme disease patients suffer from an array of symptoms including neurological issues that greatly diminish their quality of life.
Brain scans of these patients show persistent neuroinflammation, but the cause has been unclear.
Tulane University researchers have discovered that remnants of B. burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, may contribute to inflammation in both the central and peripheral nervous systems.
These remnants are significantly more inflammatory than live, intact bacteria. Their results were published in Scientific Reports.
Lead researcher Geetha Parthasarathy, PhD, assistant professor of immunology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, explored the effects of B. burgdorferi remnants on nervous system tissue using a nonhuman primate model, investigating the effects on both the frontal cortex and dorsal root ganglion.
Inflammatory markers
Inflammatory markers in these areas were several times higher in samples exposed to remnants of B. burgdorferi than in samples exposed to live bacteria, and several times higher in the frontal cortex than the dorsal root ganglion. The bacterial remnants also caused cell death in brain neurons.
“As neuroinflammation is the basis of many neurological disorders, lingering inflammation in the brain due to these unresolved fragments could cause long term health consequences,” Parthasarathy said.
Scientists still don’t know how B. burgdorferi spirochetes find their way into brain tissue.
In longstanding or persistent Lyme disease infections, bacterial spirochetes may harbor inside major organs, including the heart and brain, where they could continue to wreak havoc over time. Antibiotics may kill the bacteria in these organs, but remnants could remain if the body cannot adequately eliminate them.
Parthasarathy said the findings may explain some of the neurological symptoms and conditions that patients with persistent Lyme infections can experience.
She plans future studies to investigate new anti-inflammatory therapies for antibiotic-resistant neuroinflammation and to explore why the body may not be clearing these bacterial remnants.
Lyme disease is the #1 vector-borne infection in the United States. And, tick-borne illnesses are on the rise, in large part due to climate change leading to an ever-expanding range for the ticks that carry these pathogens.I invite you to join us on Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 8:15pm EST as we host a live presentation The Future of Lyme and TBD’s: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment Options by internationally recognized Lyme and tick-borne illness expert Dr. Horowitz.
In this 90 minute presentation, Dr. Horowitz will be focusing on how global climate change is impacting us all, leading to the spread of infectious diseases, including Lyme, tick-borne co-infections and viral illnesses, and what we need to do to change the fate of our planet.
___________________
**Comment**
Please understand that an infected, independent tick researcher who doesn’t depend upon government grant money has completely dismantled the “climate change” myth regarding ticks.
Research has been hijacked by the highest bidder and researchers clearly understand they must ‘toe the line’ and repeat accepted narratives in order to obtain grant money. “Climate change” is one such narrative. This is happening in every single area of research, but particularly with Lyme/MSIDS. Patients will only get answers from independently funded researchers without conflicts of interest.
Unfortunately, many doctors innocently perpetuate the accepted narrative. You can always tell when something is an accepted narrative when debate is thwarted completely and bullying tactics are used against anyone who disagrees. This is happening prolifically with “climate change.” Similar to COVID policies, we are told to blindly believe despite evidence to the contrary.
John explains, “The climate change range expansion model is what the authorities have been using to rationalize how they have done nothing for more than thirty years. It’s a huge cover-up scheme that goes back to the 1980’s. The grandiose scheme was a nefarious plot to let doctors off the hook from having to deal with this debilitating disease. I caught onto it very quickly. Most people have been victims of it ever since.”
“This climate change ‘theory’ is all part of a well-planned scheme. Even the ticks are smarter than the people who’ve concocted this thing,” he says.
“Climate change has nothing to do with tick movement. Blacklegged ticks are ecoadaptive, and tolerate wide temperature fluctuations. On hot summer days, these ticks descend into the cool, moist leaf litter and rehydrate. In winter, they descend into the leaf litter, and are comfortable under an insulating blanket of snow. Ticks have antifreeze-like compounds in their bodies, and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. For instance, at Kenora, Ontario, the air temperature peaks at 36°C and dips to –44°C, and blacklegged ticks survive successfully.
“Ticks are marvellous eco-adaptors. They will be the last species on the planet. Do you see how silly this theory of climate change is as a way to rationalize what’s happening. It’s all a red herring to divert your attention,” he explains.
Study from Mount Allison University researchers uses citizen science to find a new source of Lyme disease bacteria in New Brunswick mice
SACKVILLE, NB – A new study from Mount Allison University, aided by cats and cat owners, is shedding light on a new source of Lyme disease bacteria in the Maritimes and how the Lyme disease pathogen in transmitted in wildlife.
Lloyd and Zinck partnered with local veterinarians and cat owners to collect wildlife specimens and study them for zoonotic diseases – diseases such as Lyme disease that are transmitted from wildlife to humans. In this latest study, Lloyd, who heads Mount Allison’s Tick Lab, and Zinck have found a new wildlife species, the jumping mouse, that can carry Lyme disease in New Brunswick. The pair also discovered that one of the types of Lyme disease bacteria can be transmitted through the placenta to the young in that mouse species.
“We know that Lyme disease is abundant in New Brunswick wildlife,” says Lloyd. “But we didn’t know how abundant it was in wild animals in the province and these findings raise more concerns about the potential risks of Lyme disease in our region.”
To collect wildlife specimens, researchers used a Citizen Science approach, enlisting the assistance local cats and motorists in providing a large number of mice, voles, shrews, squirrels, porcupines, and other animals, to study.
Lloyd came up with the community-based approach at her home with her cat Entropy, a calico who hunts with surgical precision.
“As I looked at yet another one of Entropy’s ‘gifts’ on the front step, I wondered if there was a way for these little lives to contribute to science,” says Lloyd. “I had the same thought on my drive into work along the TransCanada highway each day, seeing animals on the side of the road.”
Zinck, who completed both his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Mount Allison and is currently completing his PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, also hit the road in the name of science. With a safety vest and permits in tow, he collected and dissected several hundred accidentally killed wild animals, finding both the known Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, and a different kind, Borrelia miyamotoi, in specimens.
“This work is important for the health of people and their pets as Borrelia miyamotoi infection would not be detected by the standard Lyme disease tests,” says Lloyd. “Even more surprisingly, we found that an infected jumping mouse mother had passed the infection on to her fetuses. This has implications for the health of wildlife and although few people would worry too much about the health of wild mice, it does have implications for a rapid increase in infected mice and the possibility that an infected human mother could pass on the infection to her child.”
Lloyd and Zinck hope that this work will help people realize how closely people and wildlife are connected and that the community can participate in advancing science.
Are you concerned about gene modification technology?
Yes, I am deeply concerned about gene modification technology. Like all tech, it can be used for good and evil. Before I go into the ways it can be abused and lead to harm, we have to distinguish between two type of gene modification technology: somatic gene modification technology (SGMT, non-heritable) and genetic modification technology (heritable). In Part 1 of this series, I will focus on SGMT.
Somatic gene modification technology (SGMT) changes genes in an individual in a way that is not passed on to future generations. There are some promising applications of this technology, and most who have looked into the risks of gene modification tech seriously take the position that when the genetic modification reverses a disease state – as would be possible in certain forms of blindness, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy – without increasing the risk of other medical issues – such as cancer – then gene modification technology is a good thing. The genetic information would be integrated in limited number of cells in a person of a particular type, such as the retina, or in specific lung tissue. (Read about Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis).
This use could be seen as as curing individuals of conditions they inherited. The problem is that society will have to decide where to draw the line between reversing a negative condition, and merely enhancing a human being (improvement), such as enhancement of athletic performance (gene doping). Let’s call this problem “The First Slippery Slope” (you’ll see why in a minute).
Knowing how big Pharma and big medicine operate as well as I do, my crystal ball tells me exactly what could happen over the next 5-30 years with SGMT:
It will be allowed for use in individual to reverse inherited, deadly or painful conditions.
A black market of genetic improvement “therapies” will spring up. It will be extremely expensive, and only the elite will be able to afford these “improvements”. These will include athletes, and those who have adopted “transhumanism”. There’s a small chance (around 1%) that this is already happening. Early adopters risk cancer due to off-target modifications: unintended mutations, of the type that has been seen in the Crispr/Cas9 gene editing system. These problems are being addressed.
The medical community will begin to pathologize conditions where the technology could be used to improve human beings. “Conditions” with fancy names like muscular asthenia will be contrived. Dr. Atlas will provide an injection of an mRNA with a retrovirus that infects muscle cells and causes more responsiveness to ambient growth hormone, and we’ll see a return to ads like these:
The Second Slippery Slope will be brought on by market forces that use the fixtures of societal influence and power to bring about compliance. This is not mere theory; we’ve see this before with voluntary vaccination programs that become mandated. Via a combination of legislation and PR to induce voluntary trust, those who will benefit financially will abuse the public’s trust and bring about, one way or the other, enforcement to maximize their market share without adding anything of real additional competitive value to an open market (this is also called “Rent-Seeking”).
Somatic gene modification used to reduce the risk of heritable risk of early onset dementia and neurodegeneration will be allowed, but then a route to increase intelligence will be found via genetic modification. At first it will be used by the elite – those who have funds for this boutique-level genetic improvements. But when Pharma recognizing the market is much larger, medical terms such as hypointelligence will be normalized by pathologizing below-level intelligence levels. The obedient media will inform the public that it’s now considered unethical to not vaccinate your newborn child against hypointelligence, and well-meaning, loving parents who comply will help change the cultural norm.
Social behavioral gene “therapy”. Scientists have already identified over 40 genes associated with aggression in humans and mice. One study reports a “warrior gene” – MAOA-L gene – that predicts whether a person will be aggressive when “provoked”. Someone will find a way to reduce aggression in mice via gene therapy. Studies will be done involving mice put under stress that causes them to be violent toward each other, to demonstrate that the treated mice won’t harm other mice. Human trials will be done on the most violent criminals and on children with autism who self-harm or hurt others. Criminals convicted of violent acts will be offered a choice: prison, or social behavioral gene therapy. The promise of a future without crime will be seen as looming, just over the horizon, and parents will be forced to test their children for evidence of “genetic aggression syndrome” and transfect their children to help eliminate violent crime from society. The specific therapy will likely be “gene inhibition therapy”, in which a gene that causes the brain to produce silencing RNA that shuts down the production of proteins associated with aggression will be transfected into infants.
Somewhere along the way, an Elon Musk-like figure will emerge that champions genetic modification to improve our species. Alternatively, in these Regulatory States of America, it will be more likely than not be a regulatory committee in HHS that votes to approve (and thereby mandate) genetic modification therapies. The committee will be infiltrated by people with direct conflicts of interests and ties to companies that own the patents on genetic modification therapies. He, she, or it will become, like The High Evolutionary of Marvel Comics, might even be early adopters – those who has demonstrated the utility of brain-enhancement by gene modification. Being super-intelligent, they will garner followers who take it upon themselves to decide the evolutionary fate of humanity.
Well, I don’t know if it’s me, or that I found Marvel Comic scenarios that match my predictions so well. I’ve scared myself enough already with this Part 1 of this series, and I’ve just started.
You can read more of my prognostication of this type more formally approached in this peer-reviewed analysis in Biological Theory, which I published in 2021.
The article predictably starts with the false narrative that the climate is behind tick proliferation. Not a word is uttered on our government’s role in spreading ticks and disease.
The article also predictably mentions that approximately 500,000 are diagnosed with Lyme but fail to mention that this is a YEARLY rate and doesn’t touch the millions chronically infected.
It does state that there is no coordinated national response like for STDs or COVID but fails to mention that there is plenty of controversy on Lyme being sexually transmitted.Better to stick to the script.
But the high numbers and the lack of national response is ALWAYS utilized for the vaccine angle. ALWAYS. And it’s getting mighty old.
A vaccine, according to the author who is just another shill for Big Pharma, is the magic pill and would solve all our problems. If only.
Of course they repeat the oft repeated mantra that some crazies complained that the last Lyme vaccine caused side effects – but had negligible evidence. Please go here for the ‘negligible’ evidence.
Superheros from Yale are trying to revive a Lyme vaccine that of course looks nothing like the last one. (For all you crazies who are actually worried about such nonsense)
And guess what? The Yale “dream team” is using messenger RNA, the same stuff that Pfizer and Moderna are using in their COVID “vaccines” which don’t stop transmission or infection, have caused more adverse reactions and death than another other vaccine in the history of VAERS, and are actually causing antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) which is making the “vaccinated” more prone to illness with COVID variants. “Vaccine” failure has been proven. But, who wants to be a Debbie Downer?
Despite the fact the mRNA shot for Lyme hasn’t even been tested in humans yet, everything about the article makes it appear to be the answer to all our woes. (Except for those crazies who question everything)
The article ends by promoting a national response to “take the responsibility off of individual patients,” who are currently responsible for buying their own DEET, protective clothing, and doing tick checks.
No thanks. I’d rather take responsibility for myself than trust organizations that are so riddled with conflicts of interest they’ve forgotten long ago what truth actually sounds like.
There are two recent antibiotic discoveries that could change the course of Lyme disease treatment. One of these is Azlocillin and the other is Hygromycin A.
Azlocillin is an FDA approved antibiotic shown in laboratory experiments, including mouse experiments, to effectively treat persister phase and growth phase Lyme. You can read more about persisters in [11] Lyme Infection. There is one hitch—no pharmaceutical company currently produces this medication. This may change in the next couple of years as a company called FlightPath is working to bring this to market. While mouse experiments and other science experiments look promising, we will have to see what human studies eventually show.
Hygromycin A is a substance found in soil that targets Lyme spirochetes and does not appear to target other bacteria—so it should not disturb the intestinal microbiome. No experiments to date have been published that determine if it will also treat persister phase Lyme. FlighPath is also developing this novel therapeutic. However, because it is not US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, it could take eight years or more to bring this to market. FlightPath must first perform the required laboratory and clinical studies to get FDA approval.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 