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IGeneX Presentation

Published on Dec 7, 2016

The Madison Area Lyme Support Group hosts the IGeneX Lab to present information regarding testing of tick-borne illnesses. 2 Hours long

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/11/01/nov-support-meeting-with-igenex-lab/

Transmission Time: Only one study done on Mice. At 24 hours every tick had transmitted to the mice; however, in the following video microbiologist Holly Ahern explains how this information has been inappropriately used for the widely held belief that if you pull a tick off before 24 hours you won’t get infected. No human studies have been done and animal studies have proven that transmission can occur in under 16 hours and it occurs frequently in under 24 hours. https://www.dovepress.com/lyme-borreliosis-a-review-of-data-on-transmission-time-after-tick-atta-peer-reviewed-article-IJGM

Bob Giguere of IGeneX states a case by Dr. Jones of a little girl who went outside to play about 8:30a.m. and came inside at 10:30 with an attached tick above her right eye. By 2 o’clock, she had developed the facial palsy. At the hospital she was told it couldn’t be Lyme as the tick hadn’t been attached long enough. They offered a neuro-consult…..

By 4pm she couldn’t walk or talk.

Dr. Jones met the family in his office on a Saturday, gave her an intramuscular injection of antibiotics and within 2 hours the palsy was gone. He continued her treatment for approximately 4 weeks.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Do not believe what the “experts” tell you about transmission times!

Category:

Lyme, research, Support Group Presentations, Testing, Ticks

Babesia Cure Update

Just heard back from the lead researcher at Yale on the mysterious ELQ compound discussed in: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/17/babesia-cure/.

“Since the publication of our work, I have received several emails and phone calls from members of the public and with a similar request. We are working on optimizing the ELQ compound to identify the best partner drug to use with atovaquone to develop a combination to use in clinical trials. This process can go from few months to years depending on the outcome of the preclinical studies. Once clinical trials start we will share this information with the general public.”

Category:

Babesia, research, Treatment

Seroprevalence of Babesia in Individuals with LD

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vbz.2016.2020

Curcio Sabino R., Tria Laurel P., and Gucwa Azad L.. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. October 2016, ahead of print. doi:10.1089/vbz.2016.2020.

Online Ahead of Print: October 24, 2016
Full Text HTML Full Text PDF (417.5 KB) Full Text PDF with Links (248.1 KB)
Author information
Sabino R. Curcio1, Laurel P. Tria,2 and Azad L. Gucwa1
1Department of Biomedical Sciences, Long Island University, Post Campus, Brookville, New York.
2Northwell Health Laboratories, Lake Success, New York.
Address correspondence to:
Azad L. Gucwa
Department of Biomedical Sciences
LIU Post
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548
E-mail: azad.gucwa@liu.edu

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Babesiosis is an emerging tick-borne disease (TBD) caused by Babesia microti, an intracellular parasite of red blood cells. Currently, it is the highest ranked pathogen transmitted by blood transfusion. Most healthy individuals infected with B. microti are asymptomatic, but may be at risk for chronic infection. Similar to Lyme disease transmitted by Borrelia burgdorferi, B. microti is spread by Ixodes scapularis ticks. The rate of coinfection with these TBDs in humans is unclear as most studies have focused their prevalence in ticks or rodent reservoirs.

Materials and Methods: In this study, we aimed to determine the seroprevalence of B. microti infection in individuals who tested positive for Lyme disease. Serum samples obtained from 130 subjects in New York were tested by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for the presence of IgM and IgG antibodies against B. microti.

Results: Overall, 26.9% of the serum samples tested were positive for IgM and IgG antibodies against B. microti, suggesting exposure to TBD (tick borne disease). Individuals who tested positive for Lyme disease as determined by two-tiered serological testing and the presence of both IgM and IgG antibodies directed against B. burgdorferi, were significantly increased for antibodies directed against B. microti (28.6%; p < 0.05), suggesting the possibility of coinfection with both TBDs. In contrast, the Lyme disease-negative control group had only 6.7% of samples seropositive for B. microti.

Conclusions: These findings suggest the need for more extensive studies investigating infection rates with multiple TBDs in areas where they are endemic and further support for the need to implement an FDA-approved screening test for blood products to help prevent transfusion-transmitted babesiosis.

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**My comment**

This study further shows evidence that when a person contracts LD, they are at risk for other co-infections as the LD lowers their immune function making them sitting ducks for other pathogens. This is a real and present problem as most general practitioners haven’t a clue about co-infections. The testing for all the TBI’s are poor and experience with symptomology is crucial in treating folks with TBI’s. I truly believe that the addition of co-infections make TBI cases exponentially more difficult to treat.

If you type the various coinfections (Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma, etc.) into the search bar on this website you can read about them and various treatment options. Feel free to copy these and take them to your health care provider for discussion.

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research

LymeData 3-Mo Follow-up

https://www.mylymedata.org

If you haven’t done it already, make sure to fill out the follow-up to the MyLymeData Project which allows patients to pool their health information through a secure website. “Big data” projects use advanced technology to gather and analyze huge amounts of patient data, which can assist researchers in studying disease patterns and answering important questions such as why do some people recover from Lyme disease, while others remain ill?

If you’ve never heard of the project and would like to know more, please read: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/11/11/lyme-research-project/

Your data, without your name or other identifiers, will be combined with the data of other patients and analyzed to help begin to answer important questions about the course of illness and factors that affect whether patients remain ill or become well.

The LymeDisease.org study team will analyze this data on its own and in partnership with researchers and clinicians who are interested in patient-centered research. Independent researchers working on patient-centered research projects approved by LymeDisease.org. may also analyze de-identified patient data.

LDo will provide information about its findings to the community through blogs, publication of white papers, and peer-reviewed articles.

Previous surveys have been published in peer-reviewed publications and used to inform healthcare policymakers on issues affecting the community.

The new follow-up includes a regular 3 month survey that tracks treatments, symptoms, treatment response and quality of life. It also includes a component about genetics, whether Lyme runs in the family, and other related illnesses (e.g. Parkinsons, Lupus etc) that people may have. This survey is a regular quarterly survey to track treatment response and look at what treatments may be working. There will also be a decedent survey that will allow people to enter information on behalf of someone who is deceased–for example, what was the cause of death?

If you want to share information about a Lyme patient who has passed away, there are two ways to do it. If you are enrolled in the program yourself, there is now a place to click to enter information about someone who has died. Otherwise, you can just join in that person’s name, and answer the questions on that person’s behalf. There’s a spot to indicate that you are answering for someone who has died.

To do the follow-up, go to: https://www.mylymedata.org. You will need to type in your user name and password.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research

Antibiotics and Alzheimer’s

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-11-antibiotic-cell-brain-areas-alzheimer.html

Antibiotic restores cell communication in brain areas damaged by Alzheimer’s disease
November 15, 2016

New research from the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at UBC has found a way to partially restore brain cell communication around areas damaged by plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings, published this week in Nature Communications, demonstrate a possible target and a potential drug treatment to reduce damage to the brain that occurs in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Using Ceftriaxone, an FDA-approved antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, researchers were able to reduce synaptic disruption and clear the lines of neuronal communication in mice.

Amyloid plaques of -amyloid deposits develop in brain regions of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, These plaques are linked to the damage found in Alzheimer’s disease because they prevent cell communication and are toxic to nerve cells. The researchers found that the brain areas around these plaques show high levels of glutamate, a signaling molecule essential to communication between brain cells, accompanying high levels of hyperactivity in glia, the brain’s support cells. It’s in this glutamate-rich environment that communication between neurons is changed or disrupted, causing neurons to die in the later stages of the disease.

“By imaging the glial cells and glutamate itself around the plaques, we were able to see that the cells were not able to ‘remove’ the glutamate accumulating in these brain areas. By using Ceftriaxone, we were able to up-regulate glutamate transport,” explains Dr. MacVicar, principal investigator and professor of psychiatry. “By restoring glutamate levels, we were able to mostly restore neuronal activity.”

The team’s findings have implications for treatment of early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

“This dysfunction in cell communication occurs at a very early stage in the disease, before memory impairment is detectable,” says Dr. Jasmin Hefendehl, a former Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. MacVicar’s lab and the lead author on the paper. “This makes our discovery particularly interesting, as it opens a window for an early intervention strategy to possibly prevent or delay neuron and memory loss.”

Ceftriaxone is an antibiotic that is commonly administered before some types of surgery to prevent infections. Although a recent clinical trial failed to see improvements for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the researchers are hopeful about its potential for early intervention in treating Alzheimer’s disease.

More information: J. K. Hefendehl et al, Mapping synaptic glutamate transporter dysfunction in vivo to regions surrounding Aβ plaques by iGluSnFR two-photon imaging, Nature Communications (2016). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13441
Journal reference: Nature Communications
Provided by: University of British Columbia

Due to the link between infections such as MSIDS (Multi systemic infectious disease syndrome – or Lyme with friends), and Alzheimer’s, this is encouraging news. It shows the very real possibility that certain antibiotics will help. Again, it appears the earlier the better.

For more information:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/09/alzheimers-byproduct-of-infection/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/10/bugs-causing-alzheimers/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/03/borrelia-hiding-in-worms-causing-chronic-brain-diseases/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/08/09/dr-paul-duray-research-fellowship-foundation-some-great-research-being-done-on-lyme-disease/