Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2018 Mar 9;14:693-713. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S155143. eCollection 2018.
Aggressiveness, violence, homicidality, homicide, and Lyme disease.
Bransfield RC1.
No study has previously analyzed aggressiveness, homicide, and Lyme disease (LD).
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Retrospective LD chart reviews analyzed aggressiveness, compared 50 homicidal with 50 non-homicidal patients, and analyzed homicides.
RESULTS: Most aggression with LD was impulsive, sometimes provoked by intrusive symptoms, sensory stimulation or frustration and was invariably bizarre and senseless. About 9.6% of LD patients were homicidal with the average diagnosis delay of 9 years. Postinfection findings associated with homicidality that separated from the non-homicidal group within the 95% confidence interval included suicidality, sudden abrupt mood swings, explosive anger, paranoia, anhedonia, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle, disinhibition, nightmares, depersonalization, intrusive aggressive images, dissociative episodes, derealization, intrusive sexual images, marital/family problems, legal problems, substance abuse, depression, panic disorder, memory impairments, neuropathy, cranial nerve symptoms, and decreased libido. Seven LD homicides included predatory aggression, poor impulse control, and psychosis. Some patients have selective hyperacusis to mouth sounds, which I propose may be the result of brain dysfunction causing a disinhibition of a primitive fear of oral predation.
CONCLUSION:
LD and the immune, biochemical, neurotransmitter, and the neural circuit reactions to it can cause impairments associated with violence. Many LD patients have no aggressiveness tendencies or only mild degrees of low frustration tolerance and irritability and pose no danger; however, a lesser number experience explosive anger, a lesser number experience homicidal thoughts and impulses, and much lesser number commit homicides.Since such large numbers are affected by LD, this small percent can be highly significant. Much of the violence associated with LD can be avoided with better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of LD.
Our previous studies showed that anti-citrate synthase (a-CS) IgM natural autoantibodies are present in healthy individuals without previous antigen stimulation, but no studies have investigated their presence in the pericardial fluid (PF). Therefore we detected the natural anti-CS IgG/M autoantibody levels in plasma and PF of cardiac surgery patients and investigated their relationship with cardiovascular disease-associated bacterial pathogens. PF and blood samples of 22 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and 10 aortic valve replacement (AVR) patients were tested for total Ig levels, natural autoantibodies and infection-related antibodies using ELISA and Luminex methods. The B cell subsets were measured by flow cytometry. The total Ig subclass levels were 4-8 times lower in PF than in plasma, but the natural anti-CS IgM autoantibodies showed a relative increase in PF. The frequency of CD19+ B lymphocytes was significantly lower in PF than in blood (P=0.01) with a significant relative increase of B1 cells (P=0.005). Mycoplasma pneumoniae antibody positive patients had significantly higher anti-CS IgM levels. In CABG patients we found a correlation between anti-CS IgG levels and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumoniae and Borrelia burgdorferi antibody titers. Our results provide the first evidence that natural autoantibodies are present in the PF and they show significant correlation with certain antibacterial antibody titers in a disease specific manner.
How a protein helps bacteria outsmart the human immune system
Findings have major implications for tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease
Summary:
New research has uncovered a mechanism by which the bacteria that cause Lyme disease fight innate immune responses, and observed a never-before-seen phenomena demonstrating the bacteria can spring back in the body weeks later. Understanding this type of bacteria, one of only a few pathogens that can actually persist in the body for long periods of time, has major implications for treatment of tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease.
FULL STORY:
Ixodes scapularis ticks transmit the pathogens of Lyme disease, resulting a multisystem illness in a variety of animals and humans. The image shows bottom side a live Ixodes tick as seen under a confocal immunofluorescence microscope.
Credit: Dr. Utpal Pal, University of Maryland
Researchers have uncovered a mechanism by which the bacteria that cause Lyme disease persist in the human body and fight the body’s early, innate immune responses. Dr. Utpal Pal, Professor in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland (UMD), has been studying the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria throughout his 12 years with UMD, and his work has already produced the protein marker used to identify this bacterial infection in the body. Now, Dr. Pal has isolated a protein produced by the bacteria that disables one of the body’s first immune responses, giving insight into mechanisms that are largely not understood.
He has also observed a never-before-seen phenomena demonstrating that even without this protein and with the immune system responding perfectly, the bacteria can spring back in the body weeks later. Understanding this type of bacteria, which is among only a few pathogens that can actually persist in the body for long periods of time, has major implications for the treatment of tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease, which is an increasingly chronic and consistently prevalent public health issue.
“Most people don’t realize that they actually are walking around with more bacterial cells in their bodies than their own cells, so we are really bags of bacteria,” explains Pal. “Most are good, but the second your body detects something that is a pathogen and can cause disease, your immune system starts to work.” The body sends a first, nonspecific wave of attack to kill the bacteria detected that doesn’t belong. This happens within a few hours to days. If this doesn’t work, it takes seven to ten days to learn about the enemy and send a large second wave of reinforcements to kill what is left. “Lyme disease is actually caused by your immune system,” explains Pal. “This bacteria wins the first battle, and your body overreacts so much that it causes intense inflammation in all the joints and areas that the bacteria spreads by sending so many reinforcements to kill it. Borrelia is then killed, but the inflammation remains and causes many of your symptoms for Lyme disease. That is why killing Borrelia in the first wave of immunity is so important.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate about 300,000 cases of Lyme disease annually in the United States. However, these cases are largely underestimated and reported due to the attention given to mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria.
“The majority of all vector-borne diseases in the US are actually tick-borne, and 6 of the 15 distinct tick diseases are transmitted by the Ixodes tick we study in our lab,” says Pal. “The symptoms of these diseases present similarly to many other illnesses and are hard to pin down, so they are vastly underreported and an even bigger public health concern locally and globally than people realize.”
Now, chronic Lyme disease is a growing concern. Six to twelve months after traditional antibiotic therapy, many people have non-objective symptoms that return with varying intensity and no current treatment strategy, known as Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.
Dr. Pal’s research has shed some light on this issue and paved the way for future research and treatment options by discovering that even without the protein used to beat the first wave of immune defense, infection can reoccur in the body weeks later.
“This means there is a second line of defense for Borrelia just like for our body’s immune system. This had never been observed before and gives us insight into what could be causing these chronic Lyme disease cases,” explains Pal.
Dr. Pal is frequently consulted for his expertise and has written books on this highly versatile bacteria. The federal government has recently put more emphasis on tick-borne disease research and a major public health issue with the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. As part of this, Dr. Pal was asked to serve on a Tick-Borne Disease Working Group Subcommittee for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) focused on vaccines and therapeutics for tick-borne diseases, driving future research in the field. Dr. Pal currently holds two concurrent multi-million dollar RO1 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for this work, only granted for highly important and influential research.
“I am fascinated by Borrelia, and this discovery will open the door for much more work to treat and control important diseases like Lyme disease,” says Pal.
Journal Reference: Quentin Bernard, Alexis A. Smith, Xiuli Yang, Juraj Koci, Shelby D. Foor, Sarah D. Cramer, Xuran Zhuang, Jennifer E. Dwyer, Yi-Pin Lin, Emmanuel F. Mongodin, Adriana Marques, John M. Leong, Juan Anguita, Utpal Pal. Plasticity in early immune evasion strategies of a bacterial pathogen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018; 201718595 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1718595115
We report the case of a 53-year-old healthy man, presenting with confusion. The patient had been clinically diagnosed with cat-scratch disease (CSD) and prescribed a 10-day course of doxycycline orally. Approximately a week after he had completed the treatment, he was admitted to our department with confusion. Neurological examination revealed expressive dysphasia with no motor or sensory deficits. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination showed only increased content. Imaging with CT and MRI of the brain did not reveal any abnormalities, and funduscopy was normal. Serology confirmed Bartonella henselae infection. CSD-associated encephalopathy was confirmed based on the clinical manifestations, CSF findings and positive serology. The patient was treated with a combination of doxycycline and rifampin and he rapidly improved with complete neurological recovery within 7 days.Encephalopathy is an unusual manifestation of CSD in adults with excellent prognosis.
PMID
29507029 [ – in process]
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**Comment**
Bartonella is a zinger and far more damaging than is being recognized. Many Lyme/MSIDS patients have it and struggle with the far reaching symptoms. While it is recognized that certain ticks carry it, it is still not widely accepted as a tick borne illness and until it is, regular doctors won’t consider even testing for it. Be your own advocate.
This webinar by Dr. Liz Gleim, Assistant Professor of Biology & Environmental Studies from Hollins University explores the impacts of long-term prescribed fire on ticks & tick-borne disease risk and what appears to be some promising results linking fire & reducing disease risk.
The research conducted in southwest Georgia concerned four tick species (slide 2):
Lone Star Tick – known for causing Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis (HME), Ehrlichiosis ewingii (STARI)
Gulf Coast Tick – known for causing Rickettsiosis
American Dog Tick – known for causing Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF)
Black Legged Tick – known for causing Lyme Disease (LD), Human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), and Babesiosis
Prior research (slide 5) have shown a discrepancy regarding whether or not controlled fire reduces tick abundance over time. Gleim found that these prior studies did not take into account “real-world” management practices such as they were conducted in small areas and consisted of single-burns.
Gleim’s study consisted of 21 Total sites in 4 different categories (slide 7):
8 burned sites surrounded by burned areas
5 burned sites surrounded by unburned areas
5 unburned sites surrounded by unburned areas
3 control unburned sites surrounded by unburned areas
The study went for 2 years in which they did monthly tick surveys, took weather data, and did vegetative and host surveys (slide 8). In the two years they collected over 47,000 ticks.
Tick abundance was in the following order (slide 10):
Lone Star Tick
Black Legged Tick
Gulf Coast Tick
American Dog Tick
Regarding fire on tick populations, they found the burned areas “flatlined” the tick populations whereas the control sites had typical tick abundance (slide 11) .
Greater than 95% leaf litter = 2X more ticks (slide 12)
High tree density = 6X more ticks
Regarding black legged ticks:
Burning reduced the black legged tick population by 78%
High tree density = 17X more ticks
Recent precipitation = 2X more ticks
Gleim was concerned about the effects of red imported fire ants (RIFA) on the ticks(slide 14 & 15)
Ticks: Evidence has shown that Imported fire ants reduce populations of certain tick species by preying on engorged female ticks filled with blood and eggs or small hatching ticks. Non-engorged ticks freeze in place and “play possum” when examined by a foraging ant, thus escaping their fate as ant food! http://articles.extension.org/pages/60922/what-do-fire-ants-eat
There is limited data only the effects of RIFA on Lone Star Ticks.
So they did 3 treatments(slide 16) putting engorged Lone Star & Gulf Coast Ticks as well as nymphs into each enclosure and releasing them them during months that they were determined to be naturally active (slide 17):
Burned habitat with Fire Ants
Burned habitat without Fire Ants (this doesn’t happen naturally)
Unburned habitat without Fire Ants (this doesn’t happen naturally)
They found (slide 18) no significant effect of RIFA on either tick species and that Gulf Coast Ticks did better than the Lone Star Ticks in the burned habitat with higher temperatures and the Lone Star Ticks did better in the unburned habitat. The ticks did not have to survive burning; however, they had to survive the habitat after the vegetation was alive and well.
They found (slide 19) that burning gave an open canopy with sunlight being able to reach through to the forest floor causing higher temps and lower humidity. The unburned sites conversely had closed canopy with a leaf litter understory causing lower temps and higher humidity which is more conducive for tick populations.
In essence – fire causes a forest structure that is less conducive to tick populations and lowers ticks and pathogen prevalence (slide 20).
The bottom line is they found (slide 21):
No Borrelia burgdorferi in the black legged ticks they collected.
.02 infected ticks per hour in all burned sites
.70 infected ticks per hour in unburned sites
Burning gave a 98% reduction in ticks.
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**Comment**
Well, now we know. Burning SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES TICKS. Let there be no question.
I’m very thankful for this work as it lays to rest the idea that burning isn’t worth it. I would say that a 78-98% reduction in ticks to be worth it!
Those of you in states where funding is increasing for tick reduction, copy this off and get it to your representatives. Burning is not toxic like pesticides often used to reduce ticks. It also works. I have to think it’s economical compared to many other options as well.
