Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Evidentiary Review: Mebendazole, Fenbendazole and Ivermectin for Astrocytoma

https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/evidentiary-review-mebendazole-fenbendazole?

EVIDENTIARY REVIEW: Mebendazole Fenbendazole and Ivermectin for Astrocytoma

Evidence as of October 12, 2026

James Lyons-Weiler, PhD

Article Excerpts:

Mebendazole has reached human brain-tumor trials, while the astrocytoma case for fenbendazole and ivermectin still rests chiefly on preclinical research. It then explains why current molecular diagnoses matter, especially the distinction between IDH-mutant astrocytoma and IDH-wildtype glioblastoma, and traces the experimental rationale from the original benzimidazole observations to newer studies in IDH-mutant and pediatric glioma models.

The clinical appraisal examines five mebendazole reports, separating dose-finding from efficacy testing and identifying what missing control groups, historical comparisons, post-treatment selection, and mixed diagnoses prevent us from concluding. The laboratory appraisal distinguishes fenbendazole from flubendazole, includes the published figure correction, and examines ivermectin’s mitochondrial and autophagy findings without treating a molecular mechanism as a clinical outcome. The final argument connects drug exposure, neurological and hepatic safety, disclosure, reproducibility, and meaningful endpoints to a concrete research program. The conclusion calls for controlled, independently auditable studies that can earn a therapeutic claim or retire it.

Doctors are being peppered with questions about a new category of drugs for use in cancer. A patient who asks whether mebendazole, fenbendazole, or ivermectin might help treat astrocytoma has asked a legitimate scientific question. The answer requires considerably more care than a declaration that these are antiparasitic drugs, because a molecule’s original indication does not determine every biological action it can exert. It also requires more care than a collection of favorable laboratory results, because an effect in cultured cells must survive a demanding sequence of tests before it can support a claim about a person with a brain tumor. The published record contains enough substance to justify serious investigation, and enough unresolved questions to make confident therapeutic promises premature.

The evidence reviewed here does not establish that institutions suppressed an effective astrocytoma treatment. It does establish that the decisive treatment comparisons remain incomplete. We should direct criticism toward that demonstrable gap and ask who will close it. Public and philanthropic funding can support trials whose value lies in answering a clinical question even when the eventual product offers limited commercial reward. Funding decisions should account for disease burden, biological plausibility, and the information a study can produce. Investigators and advocates should disclose relevant patents, equity, product sales, and referral arrangements, while sponsors should commit in advance to reporting unfavorable results.

A defensible next program would begin with molecularly characterized patient-derived models and independent replication across laboratories. It would test each candidate separately, then justify each proposed combination with concentration-response and interaction experiments. The investigators should include normal neural and hepatic systems to examine selectivity, use exposure ranges that a human development program could realistically investigate, and report failures alongside successes. For mebendazole, formulation and polymorph require explicit characterization. For every candidate, the relevant question concerns active, sustained exposure at the tumor site, which requires evidence beyond an administered dose or a transient concentration in plasma. (See link for article)

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For more:

Category:

Cancer, research, Testing, Treatment

Study: Tickborne Illness, Folate, Autism, PANS/PANDAS & FRAA

https://tickbootcamp.com/episode-595-can-lyme-affect-folate-in-the-brain-dr-lindsey-wells-on-autism-pans-pandas-fraa/

Episode 595: Can Lyme Affect Folate in the Brain? Dr. Lindsey Wells on Autism, PANS/PANDAS & FRAA

Lindsey_Wells_sq1

What if some of the depression, anxiety, brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, OCD, speech changes, and other neuropsychiatric symptoms experienced by people with Lyme and other vector-borne diseases involve more than the infection itself?

In this episode of the Tick Boot Camp Podcast, Matt Sabatello sits down with Dr. Lindsey Wells, ND, a Connecticut naturopathic physician whose work focuses heavily on children with Lyme Disease, PANS/PANDAS, autism spectrum disorder, neurodevelopmental conditions, and other vector-borne diseases.

The centerpiece of the conversation is Dr. Wells’ newly published research, “Folate Receptor Alpha Autoantibodies in Vector-Borne Disease Populations.”

Her study explored an intriguing question: could some people with Lyme disease, Bartonella, Babesia, or other vector-borne infections also have an immune-mediated problem that prevents enough folate from reaching the brain?

The findings open an important new area of investigation. (See link for article and interview)

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**Comment**

The study found that nearly 62% of patients with tick borne illness tested positive for folate receptor alpha autoantibodies.

The study also found that Bartonella was the most common individual infection identified among FRAA-positive patients.

Important excerpt:

She discusses research suggesting that proteins associated with animal dairy may share similarities with folate receptor structures. Through a molecular mimicry mechanism, antibodies generated against those proteins could potentially cross-react with folate receptors.

Dr. Wells therefore commonly incorporates dairy removal when addressing FRAA-positive patients.

She also discusses clinical observations suggesting that FRAA levels can fluctuate and may rise during periods of infection or physiological stress.

Another important point is a routine folate blood test can not determine FRAA status. The FRAT Folate Receptor Autoantibody Test, a specialty blood test designed to detect autoantibodies to folate receptor alpha is required.

Dr. Wells has seen clinical improvements in these patients in anxiety, OCD, cognition, communication, and other neuropsch symptoms by using folinic acid (Leucovorin) as it utilizes another folate transport mechanism to deliver folate to the CNS.

Category:

Autism, Lyme, PANS, research, Supplements, Testing, Treatment

Lyme Vaccine Clinical Trials: History Repeating?

https://connecticutcentinal.com/health/2026/06/01/lyme-vaccine-clinical-trials-history-repeating/

Lyme Vaccine Clinical Trials: History Repeating?

By CT Centinal Staff

June 1, 2026

Public Domain.

By Laura Hovind, CEO, TruthCures

Why is there so much controversy surrounding Lyme disease? Why does it seem you can’t get an accurate Lyme disease test?

Article Excerpts:

Lyme disease researcher and renowned expert Dr. Gary Wormser disclosed in a recent publication that he received a research grant “from Pfizer, Inc. for developing Lyme diagnostics for a Lyme vaccine trial.” Evidently the two-tier method that was developed on behalf of a pivotal efficacy trial still isn’t good enough for the latest pivotal efficacy trial.

In the absence of public disclosures or a transparent process, it looks as if Pfizer paid someone to create or validate a test that will make their vaccine appear effective. In light of Pfizer’s recent withdrawal of numerous trial sites affecting nearly half of their U.S. enrollees, this opaque move does not inspire much-needed trust in a next-generation Lyme vaccine. It only raises more questions about the apparent need to customize a diagnostic test for clinical trials, and the expert contracted to carry out the necessary laboratory work.

Why must a new diagnostic standard be developed every time a vaccine enters phase III trials? Why aren’t diagnostics developed, first, to be most accurate for diagnosing real-world patients, then applied to clinical trials? What behind-the-scenes LYMErix history has Pfizer been made privy to, that led them to conclude they needed a new test? And if, in fact, they have developed their own test, why is such a test allowed to be developed in a vacuum, without any oversight, transparency, or adherence to administrative processes and regulations?

The gap between reported Lyme disease cases and estimated actual cases represents more than 90% of the total. Ninety percent or more of the total cases are unable to test positive and receive proper care. So, it seems obvious that the controversy lies not in the over-diagnosis of Lyme, but in the staggering rate of under-diagnosis.

There is no ethical reality in which Pfizer and Valneva can be permitted to continue their trials. The existing, manipulated diagnostic standard misses 90% of cases. An individual and institution paid by Pfizer to develop “Lyme diagnostics for a Lyme vaccine trial” have helped perpetuate the manipulated standard over three decades. Trial subjects are unwittingly facing harm on multiple fronts—from the vaccine formulation itself, to a potential false sense of security, to a complete inability to be accurately diagnosed if symptoms develop.

We’ve been here before. We’ve seen the damage inflicted by the fiasco surrounding LYMErix. We have witnessed widespread medical abuse over the engineered inaccuracy of the tests developed for previous Lyme vaccine trials but foisted on the public. Yet, history is already in the process of repeating—unlikely to be stopped, with only the prior victims speaking up: “We told you.” (See link for entire chronology)

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**Comment**

Hovind does a superb job detailing the long and sordid history.

What’s hard for folks to grasp is that everything is truly build on false premises – testing, diagnosis, and therefore treatment is fundamentally and fraudulently wrong. If you are new to Lymeland I suggest reading: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/09/25/why-should-we-care-about-lyme-disease-a-colorful-tale-of-government-conflicts-of-interest-probable-bioweaponization-and-pathogen-complexity/ and then https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2026/03/17/why-we-should-care-if-lyme-disease-was-bioengineered/.

For more:

More on the Lyme vaccine:

One of the best articles on the Lyme vaccine was written in 2001 but remains pertinent today: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/02/10/the-bitter-feud-over-lymerix/

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing, vaccines

The Smear That Buried BITTEN

https://krisnewby.substack.com/p/the-smear-that-buried-bitten?

The Smear that Buried BITTEN

Reframe the claim. Call it a conspiracy. Never release the files.

Kris Newby

Sept. 29, 2026

I spent five years researching Bitten, my book about the U.S. military’s Cold War bug-borne weapons program and the unresolved questions surrounding the first investigation into Lyme disease.

At the center of the story is Willy Burgdorfer, the NIH scientist celebrated for identifying the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Before the book came out, few people knew that Burgdorfer also spent part of his career working with Fort Detrick’s entomological warfare division. Researchers there studied how fleas, mosquitoes, and ticks could be infected with pathogens and used as weapons.

Late in life, Burgdorfer told me he had found a second unusual microbe during the Lyme investigation—one he believed deserved far more scrutiny. He suggested it may have been connected to earlier weapons research and said he had been ordered to set it aside. Letters and laboratory notes I later found supported that account.

To be clear, Bitten did not prove that Lyme disease was a bioweapon. It asked a narrower and more urgent question: whether another potentially disease-causing microbe found in Lyme-area ticks and humans had been ignored, hidden, or never fully investigated.

That distinction matters. When Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) called for a congressional inquiry in 2019 into whether the military had used ticks in biological-weapons research, the public deserved a careful examination of the records. Instead, the debate was quickly reframed around a claim I never made.

Tick researcher Sam Telford III published a Washington Post op-ed titled, “No, Lyme disease is not an escaped military bioweapon, despite what conspiracy theorists say.” A link in the article pointed readers to a review of my book.

I saw this as a classic disinformation move—reframe the argument to include something false, then attribute it to the reporter and brand the person as a conspiracy theorist. Casual readers never get past the headline and a false narrative is burned into memory.

The stakes are not academic. The release of engineered or unnatural biological agents can have long-term effects on people and the environment. Continued secrecy around the tick-borne weapons program still obstructs a timely response to a growing public-health crisis.

A conversation with the author

I called Telford after reading the piece to discuss statements I considered false or misleading. When I asked whether he had read Bitten, he said, “No. I don’t have time to read books.” I offered to send him a copy. “You can, but I’ll probably shred it,” he replied. That exchange stayed with me: an op-ed designed to dismiss my book was written by someone who told me he had not read it.

(See link for article)

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**Comment**

Sadly, we go onto learn that publications would not fact-check the errors in Telford’s op-ed.

Newby kept digging and points out that Telford, a tick researcher at Tufts University didn’t disclose that he was the director of Tuft’s New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory, located in a semi-rural New England town about 40 miles west of Boston. This biolevel-3 lab works on biodefense, dangerous pathogens, and high-containment laboratory operations, including anthrax and tick-borne diseases.

COVID exposed a much bigger reason for the lack of disclosure.

The ‘powers that be’ do not want the eye of Mordor swinging onto tick weaponization because it would draw attention to dangerous work at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, including the importing of foreign pathogens exposed a couple of months ago in the Munster affair, described here and here, not to mention the fact everyone’s dog knows now that COVID was created in a lab and either escaped or was intentionally released.

The questions raised decades ago continue to remain unresolved thanks to Telford and others’ deflection.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Tularemia

Lyme, Dementia, and the Tests Nobody Thinks to Run

Lyme, Dementia, and the Tests Nobody Thinks to Run

Sept. 2026

Dr. Hartman and Dr. Horowitz walk through the 16 factor MSIDS model, why chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia sit at the top of the list of diagnoses worth reconsidering, and the brain markers Dr. Horowitz now asks physicians to run before and after treatment. They also cover how Lyme testing differs across labs, the dapsone protocol he developed over a decade, and why he believes the same handful of factors keeps surfacing in dementia, autism, ADHD and long COVID. That argument sits at the center of Ending Chronic Illness, his new book from Simon & Schuster, and this conversation is for patients who have seen many doctors without getting answers as well as clinicians willing to widen what they measure before deciding what a patient has. —

Dr. Horowitz developed an empirically validated questionnaire for Lyme-MSIDS which is more accurate than current testing. He also wrote: “Why We Can’t Get Better,” an excellent resource for both patients and practitioners. He states that it’s easier to obtain medically assisted death than treatment for chronic Lyme disease, and wrote a thoroughly sourced article showing that the debate about chronic Lyme is entirely political and not based on science.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Why Lyme may sit under the dementia numbers

02:24 — The scale of the epidemic and why case counts diverge

06:57 — Reading a Lyme test differently

11:53 — Sixteen nails in the foot

12:44 — The first live human case linking Lyme and Alzheimer’s

16:03 — Why the same 16 factors keep appearing

21:26 — How the dapsone protocol was discovered

24:03 — Brain markers, and amyloid as a defense

27:04 — Autism, ADHD, and measuring inflammation first

36:30 — Which diagnoses should prompt a tick-borne workup

41:14 — Dapsone: side effects, risk, and benefit

50:27 — Which tests to order, and Ending Chronic Illness

Category:

Lyme, Psychological Aspects, Testing, Treatment