Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Borrelia bissetti Found in Canadian Deer Ticks

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30395480/

Identification of Borrelia bissettii in Ixodes scapularis ticks from New Brunswick, Canada.

Lewis J, et al. Can J Microbiol. 2019.

Abstract

Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease that is emerging in Canada. The disease is caused by spirochetes of the Lyme borreliosis group, which is expanding as new species are discovered. In Canada, Lyme disease risk has so far been assessed primarily by detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. Of Ixodes scapularis ticks collected between 2014 and 2016 in New Brunswick, Canada, 7 were shown to be infected with Borrelia bissettii by nested PCR and sequencing of 5 B. bissettii genes. Since different Borrelia species are associated with different clinical manifestations and are not detected with the same diagnostic tests, the identification of a previously undocumented or underreported pathogenic Borrelia species has important implications for public and veterinary medicine.

_________________

**Comment**

Again, the important issue here is that current CDC 2-tiered tests only test for ONE strain of borrelia when there are 300 and counting strains worldwide being transported everywhere by migrating birds, rodents, lizards, and mammals – including humans.

Before you discount Borrelia bissetti as being “somewhere else,” please know it was found in Chicago rodents:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11075925. These strains are unlike previous Borrelia isolates from NW Illinois and Wisconsin.

This excellent pdf has studies of bissetti in everything from mice to human heart valves: ws-B.Bissettii1  The pdf also makes an excellent point that desperately needs to be addressed:  Borrelia strains sequenced are strains that have been grown in culture medium. What about the diverse strains identified in the Southeastern United States that cannot be cultured? It also gives two studies showing that changing criteria of the Western Blot & mixing borrelia strains increased testing sensitivity.

 Time for the CDC to roll up their sleeves and deal with this. It is way past time.

For more on testing:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/16/2-tier-lyme-testing-missed-85-7-of-patients-milford-hospital/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/12/direct-diagnostic-tests-for-lyme-the-closest-thing-to-an-apology-you-are-ever-going-to-get/

Key quote:  

“These serologic tests cannot distinguish active infection, past infection, or reinfection.”

In plain English, these tests don’t show squat.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/08/whats-the-best-test-for-lyme-dr-rawls/

Excellent article explaining the tests:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/12/lyme-testing-problems-solutions/

 

 

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks

Can You ‘Catch’ Cancer?

https://blog.frontiersin.org/2019/03/27/helminth-worms-cause-cancer/?

Can you ‘catch’ cancer?

by Matthew Prior, Frontiers science writer

March 27, 2019

Frontiers in Medicine: Parasitic worms cause cancer – and could help cure it
In endemic regions, parasitic worms called ‘flukes’ are responsible for the majority of all bladder and liver cancer cases. Image: Shutterstock.

 

Parasitic worms cause cancer – and could help cure it

Billions worldwide are infected with tropical worms. Unsurprisingly, most of these people live in poor countries, kept poor by the effects of worm-related malnourishment.

What may surprise many is that worms are also a major cause of cancer in these countries.

Published in Frontiers in Medicine and Frontiers in Public Health as a Research Topic on parasite-associated malignancy, new research aims to inform prevention and treatment – and perhaps even turn worms against cancer. Frontiers Research Topics are highly visible peer-reviewed article collections led by the world’s leading researchers who harness collaborative knowledge on today’s biggest scientific questions.

Worms cause cancer

Over a million worm species are classified as helminths. A single characteristic unites them: parasitism.

“Helminths take many forms, but all of them harm their host in some way. In humans, they can live in the intestinal tract, urinary tract or bloodstream, causing a variety of illness from malnutrition to organ failure” explains co-editor of the research Dr. Monica Botelho of Portugal’s National Institute of Health.

In 2015 a more bizarre case of infection put helminths into the headlines: a man with HIV-AIDS died after his tapeworm contracted cancer and spread around his body. This remains the only such case ever recorded.

Meanwhile, scientists have known for decades that helminths can turn human cells into cancers.

“Three species of helminth are classified as class 1 carcinogens by the WHO,” adds Botelho. “These are all designated trematodes – after the Latin name for the grisly feeding cavity with which they latch onto their host’s insides.”

Worm-related cancer is not just a fluke – it’s three

Trematodes are known informally as ‘flukes’. In this case however, they’re anything but.

“In endemic regions – predominantly sub-saharan Africa and Southeast Asia – flukes are responsible for the majority of all bladder and liver cancer cases,” says Dr. Joachim Richter, Associate Professor at Charité Berlin and co-editor with Botelho. “Cancers arise in sites of fluke infection including the bladder wall and the bile ducts of the liver.”

But how does a worm cause cancer? According the research collection, their feeding – and breeding – habits might be to blame.

“Flukes constantly wound and re-wound their host as they latch on with their feeding cavity, burrow through organs, and deposit eggs in the bladder wall. This leads to chronic inflammation as the body tries endlessly to heal, meaning lots of cell division and so lots of opportunities for cancer-causing mutations to accumulate over years of infection.”

The flukes’ toxic toilet habits then add insult to injury.

“Worms and their eggs also excrete proteins that exacerbate this chronic inflammation, further promoting cell division as well as the blood vessel growth required to feed it,” adds Richter.

Hyper tapeworms protect hosts from cancer

Fluke infections and early stage cancers are often asymptomatic, so despite availability of anthelminthic drugs patients often present too late for curative treatment. Fortunately, flukes have an Achilles’ heel: they require freshwater snails as a first host before infecting humans.

“Flukes have been successfully eliminated in Japan by economic development and the filling and drainage of snail habitats,” says Richter. “Eradication efforts are underway in Thailand, which has the world’s highest rates of liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer – but some high-risk countries like Ethiopia lack a coordinated monitoring or prevention program for fluke-related cancer and need more help.”

Beyond eradication efforts lies another twist in the bizarre world of worms and cancer: helminths as a cure for malignancy.

“Many parasites, including some helminths like the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica, inhibit cancer growth in vitro. Another of these – the ominously named ‘hyper tapeworm’ – is associated with a significantly lower rate of cancer in human hosts,” reports Botelho.

“In fact, there is evidence that proteins produced by hyper tapeworms as well as F. hepatica not only kill cancer cells directly – but might also enhance their host’s immune response to tumors.”

“Even cancer-promoting fluke proteins might be repurposed as treatments for other conditions: for example, those that promote new blood vessel growth could help resolve chronic non-healing wounds in diabetics, tobacco users, and the elderly.”

__________________

**Comment**

There is a connection between helminths (worms) and Lyme/MSIDS and some patients improve dramatically on anthelmintics:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/03/borrelia-hiding-in-worms-causing-chronic-brain-diseases/

Lyme discoverer, Willy Burgdorfer, wrote of finding nematodes in tick guts way back in 1984 and in 2014 University of New Haven researcher, Eva Sapi, found 22% of nymphs and 30% of adult Ixodes ticks carried nematodes.  

This study shows worms (Onchocerciasis) in Wisconsin ticks:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/11/co-infection-patterns-in-wisconsin-black-legged-ticks-show-associations-between-viral-eukaryotic-bacterial-microorganisms/

The CDC states the treatment of choice is Ivermectin as well as doxycycline. Doxy kills the adult worms by killing the Wolbachia bacteria on which the adult worms depend in order to survive.  https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/onchocerciasis/treatment.html

There is a dog study, however, that shows wide-spread inflammation after heart worm medicine was given (Ivermectin & Pyrantel) so discuss ALL of this with your practitioner:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/10/wolbachia-the-next-frankenstein/.  Since Dr. McDonald has found these worms containing spirochetes in the brain, the vast die-off herxheimer might be severe and needs to be carefully considered and monitored. This is NOT a do-it-yourself treatment!

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/08/09/dr-paul-duray-research-fellowship-foundation-some-great-research-being-done-on-lyme-disease/  Another great article by microbiologist Tom Greer and a repeat warning that anthelmintics can cause severe inflammatory reactions and fatal encephalitis.

Probably one of the most popular hits on this website contains information on parasite treatments:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/removing-parasites-to-fix-lyme-chronic-illnesses-dr-jay-davidson/  It’s obviously a big problem.

The CDC’s mono-therapy of doxycycline isn’t ever going to cure the Lyme/MSIDS pandemic. This is a serious polymicrobial illness that takes savvy.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

 

Category:

Activism, Parasites, research

Sjogren’s, Lymphadenopathy, & Unraveling Lyme Diagnosis

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6409830/

Sjögren’s syndrome and lymphadenopathy unraveling the diagnosis of Lyme disease

Svitlana Smiyan,1 Igor Galaychuk,2 Igor Zhulkevych,2 Volodymyr Nykolyuk,3 Roman Komorovsky,corresponding author1Sofiya Gusak,1 and Ivan Bilozetsky4

Abstract

Lyme disease is a multisystem tick-borne transmissive disease with heterogeneous manifestations, frequently making the diagnosis difficult in clinical practice. Herein, we report a case of a 43-year-old female patient who presented with generalized lymphadenopathy requiring a further diagnostic evaluation towards lymphoma. The patient also had clinical signs of Sjögren’s syndrome. Lymph node excision with subsequent histological and immunohistochemical studies were performed. While light microscopy findings were suspicious for lymphoma, immunohistochemistry results were consistent with cortical and paracortical lymph node hyperplasia with no evidence of lymphoproliferative disorder. Further laboratory testing confirmed the presence of Lyme borreliosis. Effectiveness of the administered antibiotic therapy confirmed Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Interrelationships between Sjögren’s syndrome, lymphadenopathy and Lyme disease are discussed.

_______________

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/19/sjogrens-syndrome-clinical-benefits-of-low-dose-naltrexone-therapy/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/09/bartonella-presenting-with-lymphadenopathy/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/02/skin-inflammation-nodules-letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/01/cns-lyme-disease-with-cranial-neuropathies-and-mimicking-b-cell-lymphoma/

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Treatment

Ticks & Lyme Are in Cities Too

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30921726

Ticks and tick-borne diseases in the city: Role of landscape connectivity and green space characteristics in a metropolitan area.

Heylen D1, Lasters R2, Adriaensen F2, Fonville M3, Sprong H3, Matthysen E2.

Abstract

Green spaces in the city are important for human wellbeing, but are also zones in which humans can become infected with zoonotic diseases. Therefore, there is a need to understand how infection risk is related to green space characteristics, wildlife communities and connectivity with rural areas hosting reservoir populations of hosts. Our hypothesis is that wildlife hosts in urban green spaces, and thereby the prevalence of questing ticks and their Lyme disease causing pathogens (Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.), can be partly predicted based on green space characteristics as well as measures of connectivity to known source areas. We sampled ticks in twenty-two green spaces during Spring (2014 and 2016) and Autumn 2016, located along an urbanization gradient in Antwerp (Belgium). More than 18,000 m2 was sampled, with tick densities ranging from 0 to 386 individuals/100 m2. We estimated connectivity using the least-cost algorithm as either the cost distance to the nearest green space, or to a known population of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), known to be an important tick propagation host. Both connectivity measures turned out to be correlated, reflecting a gradient in green space isolation from the periphery to the urban center.

  • In 87% of plots where ticks were trapped, at least one Borrelia-infected tick was found.
  • The overall Borrelia-prevalence in nymphs was 17.8%, in adults 32.6%.
  • Density of infected ticks decreased with urbanization and increased with connectivity.
  • Nymphs in larger green spaces were more likely to be infected.
  • Density and infection prevalence for adults increased with the amount of neighboring agricultural land, the larval density and nymphal infection prevalence decreased.
  • Interestingly, the proportion of Borrelia genospecies associated with birds or mammals was comparable in rural and (sub)urban areas (bird/mammal: 0.38), suggesting that even in small green spaces Borrelia infections can persist in local host populations.

_________________

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/09/danish-study-shows-migrating-birds-are-spreading-ticks-their-pathogens-including-places-without-sustainable-tick-populations/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/17/of-birds-and-ticks/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/14/python-covered-with-more-than-500-ticks-rescued-in-australia/

 

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks

Transmission of Lyme disease – Lida Mattman, PhD

Approx. 3 Min.

Dr. Lida Mattman at the 2005 Chicago Autoimmunity Research Foundation conference. Full presentation found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=119&v=WozrCFW0mRM

Transmission of Lyme Disease

Transcript:

This is a colony in urine. (spirochetes in pleomorphic colony in Lyme patient’s urine stain with acridine orange)

We get to the ways that burgdorferi is transmitted. I laugh at all this stuff about looking for the Woodtick. That’s so ridiculous because most of the people who get Lyme disease have never heard or seen a tick. We know now it’s in tears and people wipe their eyes and then you shake hands with them. Or we don’t laugh so hard about the physician we had in the hospital who wouldn’t touch the doorknobs in the hospital without taking his white coat and handling the doorknob through a coat. Maybe he wasn’t so insane after all.

So we think this is spread by what is called fomites (an inanimate object or substance that is capable of transmitting infectious organisms from one individual to another) which is the pencil in the bag as you pick up a pen to write a check or anything you handle. So it’s in urine and in tears and it’s also spread by mosquitoes and who hasn’t had a mosquito bite?  We’ve tested the mosquitoes in Michigan and sure enough they can carry the Lyme spirochete.  

Oh, this is very interesting, I thought. This is a culture of that dreadful spirochete of Lou Gehrig’s and it’s stained with acridine orange and it’s staining red showing it’s still full of pep and multiplying and it’s a 10 day culture. We repeat this with the spirochete of Lyme or MS and at 10 days they are only green so if you have your choice you’re not going to take this one are you? Lou Gehrig’s is the last thing you’d want.

And this is something else where the ordinary lab that doesn’t have florescent antibody – this is a simple stain  – Sudan black B. Sudan Black only stains a few things. It stains pseudomonas, you don’t run into pseudomonas in the average patient. Sudan black B. is something you can purchase and doesn’t cost very money like a florescent antibody does – that is very useful.  (slide says “membrane *& outgrowth of L-body in blood culture of Lyme patient. Stained with Sudan Black B.)  That’s probably my last slide.  (Slide says:  “To me they’re not just a bunch of microbes – they’re personalities!”)

Together with her collegue JoAnne Whittacker, Mattman did groundbreaking work on Lyme testing. Her Gold Standard Culture Method has disappeared thanks to the concerted suppression on microscopy. In 2004 she already claimed that she could not find any uninfected blood in the USA anymore.  

Dr. Lida Mattman studied borrelia for decades and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. She is recognized for her work with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, scleroderma and Parkinson’s. She described the etiology of interstitial cystitis and worked to discern the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and anterior uveitis, the most common cause of blindness. She also taught and used a new method to diagnose tuberculosis in 48 hours. 

Having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in microbiology and virology respectively from the University of Kansas and a doctorate in immunology from Yale University in 1940, she was professor of microbiology at Wayne State University since 1949 and is credited with ushering thousands of would-be doctors and nurses into the medical profession. She was awarded the university’s President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research in 1977, retired in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005. Her book, “Cell Wall Deficient Forms,” written in 1974, is regarded as an invaluable education tool among researchers, students and physicians in the field of microbiology.

In addition to doing research at the universities of Iowa and Pennsylvania, she served as director of clinical laboratories for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and was an instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mattman died in 2008 at 96 due to liver failure.  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29190964/lida-mattman

Mattman isolated living Borrelia spirochetes in mosquitoes, fleas, mites, semen, urine, blood, plasma and Cerebral Spinal Fluid. She discovered that this bacteria is dangerous because it can survive and spread without cell wall (L shape).  Because L-forms do not possess cell wall, they are resistant to antibiotics that act upon the cell wall.

Others have found various ways Bb is transmitted as well:

The CDC/IDSA/NIH are on vacation and still haven’t received the memo

But like so many other pioneers who expose inconvenient truths about Lyme, the Michigan State Attorney’s Office told Dr. Mattman to stop testing for Lyme using her gold standard direct culture technique.  She also successfully duplicated the results of the Bowen Q-RiBb test, which provided a preliminary report of the findings within 24 hours of receiving the specimen. The final report included digital photographs of the finding, which was useful in evaluating treatment by comparing pre and post serial dilution results.

Mattman was subsequently threatened with time in jail or a fine of 5,000 dollars a day.  State police arrived at her lab with handcuffs and tried to find evidence that she was still testing but they didn’t find what they were looking for. She was forced to stop her valuable work and leave her lab.

The continued adherence to worthless 2-tier CDC testing is on purpose.  They don’t want an accurate test – they had two and buried them!

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Transmission