Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Potential Medical Adhesive – Tick Saliva

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/animals-ticks-saliva-health-disease/

Bloodsucking Ticks Make Cement to Attach to Your Skin

By Joshua Rapp Learn
PUBLISHED JANUARY 19, 2018

The disease-carrying parasites’ natural glue could also hold a key to healing us.

01-tick-BMYJ9K.adapt.590.1

Picture of a deer tick

Native to the United States, the deer tick (pictured) is a vector for several diseases that afflict humans, including Lyme.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUNIORS BILDARCHIV, ALAMY

Bloodsucking parasites that can carry deadly diseases create their own cement to glue themselves to our bodies, a new study says.

Hard ticks—a family of 700 species that includes the Lyme-spreading deer tick—use pincer-like appendages and mouths to attach to a host’s skin. But sometimes this grip isn’t strong enough for the arachnid to hold on and feed while the host moves.

Sylvia Nürnberger and colleagues discovered hard ticks have an extra tool to glom onto their hosts’ skin—a kind of glue made of proteins in their saliva. See a map that shows Americans’ risk of catching Lyme:  http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/20/map-lyme/?  (See my comment below article on accuracy of this map)

“Not all species have it and not all species have it in the same amount,” says Nürnberger, a researcher at the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna.

The cement discovery could actually benefit humans, she adds, as its properties could be repurposed into a medical adhesive.

NOTHING TO SPIT AT
For the study, the scientists reviewed all existing scientific research on tick saliva, which gave them an expansive view of this previously underreported cement substance.

Tick saliva is complex, containing properties that suppress the immune system of the tick’s host to keep them unaware of the intrusion by also suppressing pain and itchiness, according to the study, published in November 2017 in Biological Reviews:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.12384/full

“In a way, they play with the immune systems of the host,” Nürnberger says.

The new study is “a remarkably detailed review of quite an obscure thing,” notes Tony Goldberg, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

All blood-sucking organisms, not only ticks but leeches and mosquitoes, must “run a gauntlet of defenses by the animal it’s feeding on,” he notes.

He should know: Goldberg once discovered a new species of tick stuck in his nose after visiting Uganda several years ago.  https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/10/08/how-a-mysterious-tick-ended-up-in-a-scientists-nose/

“I can tell you that thing had some powerful glue,” he says.

TICK PARADOX
Properties in tick spit also lower the host’s defenses against pathogens like Lyme disease, he adds.

“It’s a paradox. One of the functions of this [cement] is that it’s antimicrobial, so the ticks don’t [cause] an infection which would keep them from feeding,” Goldberg says.

“Yet there are an awful lot of horrible tickborne diseases that have latched onto this system and are transmitted to us in the saliva.”

Ticks’ technique for removing themselves from skin is less clear, but Nürnberger says the arachnids may detach themselves by moving their mouthparts around and retracting their pincers. They may also use their saliva to dissolve the cement.

WHAT HURTS US COULD MAKE US STRONGER
As fascinating as tick spit is, Nürnberger and colleagues weren’t just studying it for fun.

They are conducting ongoing studies on how to recreate properties from the cement that could be made into medical adhesives or sealants. These substances could help heal human injuries and broken bones, as well as glue implants to the body.

Scientists have already developed biological adhesives inspired by barnacles, mussels, and sea urchins, but she says tick cement may be more promising.

“The animal already uses this substance to glue to human tissue,” she says. “So we think it could be very compatible and very good in terms of bonding strength.”

_____________

**Comment**

When is there going to be practical and helpful research done to help the plight of Lyme/MSIDS patients?

Recently I commented on another tick article about research ideas:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/19/how-ticks-find-you/

Which TBI’s are sexually transmitted? https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/
Do other insects transmit Lyme? Are there other modes of transmission? (The studies are over 30 years old)
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/
What other vectors transmit the co-infections that typically come with Lyme?
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/18/bartonella-vectors/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/11/06/probable-transfusion-transmission-of-babesiosis/
When are the “powers that be” going to admit that the interplay of Lyme and various coinfections require far more than 21 days of doxycycline?
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/
When are the “powers that be” going to admit that this complex illness is serious and requires serious treatment (The issue of persistence needs to be serious addressed)  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/14/live-bb-found-after-months-of-doxy/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/03/lyme-bug-stronger-than-antibiotics-in-animals-and-test-tubes-now-study-people/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/09/19/proof-of-borrelia-persistence/

The CDC has awarded 10 million to midwestern universities – including the UW Madison.  Please take the time to call these universities and make it clear you want a preponderance of this money going into research that will DIRECTLY help Lyme/MSIDS patients – which means putting Zika way down the list of priorities since it isn’t even on the radar here!  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/27/uwm-center-of-excellence-vector-borne-diseases/

As for the infamous geographical maps telling where Lyme is and where Lyme isn’t:  http://steveclarknd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Confounding-Debate-Over-Lyme-Disease-in-the-South-DiscoverMagazine.com_.pdf   Scroll to page 6 to learn how Andrew Spielman’s tick maps have ruled Lyme Land like the iron curtain, and frankly still do, dictating where Lyme is and is not. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/24/canine-maps-better-than-the-cdcs-in-predicting-lyme-disease/

Lyme/MSIDS is everywhere and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Will somebody do meaningful research to help patients?

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, research, Ticks

How Ticks Find You

https://entomologytoday.org/2018/01/16/up-close-look-tiny-sensory-pits-ticks-use-smell/  by Meredith Swett Walker

An Up-Close Look at the Tiny Sensory Pits That Ticks Use to Smell

Ixodes scapularis Haller's organ

A new study in the Journal of Medical Entomology analyzes the the Haller’s organs of three tick species, including that of Ixodes scapularis, shown above. The Haller’s organ is a sensory pit on the foreleg used to detect heat and chemical odors emitted by potential hosts. “Landmarks” used in analysis of the organs are numbered. (Image originally published in Josek et al, 2017, Journal of Medical Entomology)

If you ever find a tick before it finds you—that is when it’s still hanging out on vegetation hoping you’ll brush past it—you may notice the little bloodsucker waving its “arms in the air like it just don’t care.” But ticks aren’t fans of 1980’s hip hop. They’re waving their arms because they are trying to get a whiff of you. 

While insects primarily smell with their antennae, ticks are not insects; rather, they’re arachnids, and they don’t have antennae. Instead, a tick smells using a structure on its forelegs called the Haller’s organ. The Haller’s organ is described as a tiny “sensory pit” that can detect chemicals like carbon dioxide, ammonia, or pheromones. It can even sense humidity and infrared light, which includes body heat emitted by the warm, blood-filled creatures that the tick wants to find.

Questing-Dermacentor-varabilisWhen seeking a host, ticks such as the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) wave their forelegs, in a behavior called “questing.” The ticks’ forelegs feature tiny sensory pits called Haller’s organs used to detect a passing host. (Photo credit: Tanya Josek)

Despite the importance of the Haller’s organ in tick’s ability to find hosts, it hasn’t been described in detail for many important tick species. But in research published in December in the Journal of Medical Entomology, Tanya Josek, Brian Allan, Ph.D., and Marianne Alleyne, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois examine the Haller’s organ in three medically important species of tick: the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), and the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis).

Each of these species is an important disease vector: I. scapularis transmits the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, A. americanumtransmits the bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis, and D. variabilis transmits the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever. A better understanding of how these ticks find their hosts may aid in reducing disease transmission.

Josek-tick-collecting

Tanya Josek, a graduate researcher at the University of Illinois, suits up in Tyvek and duct tape during tick collection. Ticks are gathered by dragging a white cloth through vegetation and then collecting ticks that attach to the cloth. (Photo credit: Tanya Josek)

Josek, a graduate student in Alleyne’s lab, was interested in arthropod sensory structures. The Haller’s organ seemed a great research topic: Relatively little was known about it, and the potential findings could have important applications in real-world tick-control efforts. The only problem? Josek had a phobia of ticks stemming from some bad experiences in childhood. “This was a complete shock to me because I have loved spiders and insects my whole life,” she says.

But Josek conquered her fear with knowledge, reading up on where you’re most likely to pick up the parasites and how long it takes them to transmit disease. She trained with Allan to learn tick collection skills. Then, arming herself with a white Tyvek suit and ample duct tape, she set out into the forests and fields of Illinois in search of ticks.

Previous studies of the Haller’s organ were mostly qualitative, which, while informative, are not useful to making quantitative comparisons between species. In addition, recent advances in scanning electron microscope technology provided an opportunity to look more closely at the tiny structure. Josek and her collaborators used environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) to get high resolution images of Haller’s organs.

tick-sample-for-environmental-scanning-electron-microscopyWhat might look like the latest in tick inspired jewelry design is rather a set of tick samples prepared for environmental scanning electron microscopy. In this case, ticks were mounted with forelegs turned so their Haller’s organ faced upwards, and they were then coated with gold and platinum. According to entomologist Marianne Alleyne, Ph.D., “the gold/platinum mixture is an especially good electrical conductor” and helps keep the sample from being “fried” by the electron beam.  (Photo credit: Tanya Josek)

The team focused on the overall shape of the Haller’s organ in each tick species as well as the organ’s major components: the capsule aperture, anterior pit, and the number of setae and sensilla (hair-like structures) in the pit. They analyzed their images using Geometric Morphometrics Analysis, a technique that essentially translates shape measurements into data that can be used in quantitative comparisons.

They found that the structure of the Haller’s organ was significantly different in each species of tick. In one species, D. variabilis, the morphology of the Haller’s organ was significantly different between females and males. This study did not test the consequences of these differences in shape, but the detailed quantitative measurements it provides can serve as a basis for future studies in differences in function of the Haller’s organs between species.

Ixodes-scapularis-Hallers-organ Amblyomma-americanum-Hallers-organ Dermacentor-variabilis-Hallers-organEnvironmental scanning electron microscopy reveals detailed close-ups of the Haller’s organs of three tick species: Ixodes scapularis (Is), Amblyomma americanum (Aa), and Dermacentor variabilis (Dv). The Haller’s organ is a sensory pit on the foreleg used to detect heat and chemical odors emitted by potential hosts. “Landmarks” used in analysis of the organs are numbered. (Image originally published in Josek et al, 2017, Journal of Medical Entomology) “

I. scapularis, A. americanum, and D. variabilis have different preferred hosts and different strategies for finding them. The differences in the structure of their Haller’s organs may reflect this. In order to understand how Haller’s organ morphology relates to tick life histories, “within-genus comparisons, as well as comparisons between ticks with different host-seeking behaviors or between ticks that have a generalist or specialist host-range,” are necessary, say the authors.

Meanwhile, Josek is working on determining the specific chemicals, infrared wavelengths, or humidity variables the Haller’s organ is sensing. Josek and Alleyne are also looking at the organ from a genomics perspective and will soon publish a paper that examines the chemoreceptors and binding proteins expressed in the Haller’s organ.

Alleyne’s main research interest is bioinspired design, and, while she’s not a huge fan of ticks, she finds inspiration in the Haller’s organ. “To think that arthropods have an exoskeleton that protects them from the environment … and yet are able to sense minute amounts of chemicals is amazing to me. The Haller’s organ is an example of a multi-functional sensor that is very sensitive yet rather simple in design, compared to a vertebrate’s nose, for instance,” she says.

If we can better understand the structure ticks use to find us (and their other hosts,) we might devise ways to elude them. This could reduce transmission of serious diseases, as well as make ticks less of a creepy problem for people who work or play outdoors. Josek has overcome her tick phobia and is now comfortable collecting and handling them, but “I still have the occasional nightmare about them,” she admits.

Meredith Swett Walker is a former avian endocrinologist who now studies the development and behavior of two juvenile humans in the high desert of western Colorado. When she is not handling her research subjects, she writes about science and nature. You can read her work on her blogs Pica Hudsonia and The Citizen Biologist or follow her on Twitter at @mswettwalker.

_______________

**Comment**

Well, I can certainly understand Josek’s phobia.  It would be interesting to know where she got her information on tick location and transmission time as those issues are hot-beds of controversy.

For more accurate info:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/  In under 6 hours after a tick bite a little girl couldn’t walk. Powassan can be transmitted in mere minutes.

http://steveclarknd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Confounding-Debate-Over-Lyme-Disease-in-the-South-DiscoverMagazine.com_.pdf (go to page 6 and read about Speilman’s maps which are faulty but have ruled like the Iron Curtain, and have been used to keep folks from being diagnosed and treated)

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/06/remembering-dr-masters-the-rebel-for-lyme-patients-who-took-on-the-cdc-single-handedly/  Dr. Masters argued with the “powers that be” that Lyme or a Lyme-like illness was in the South for decades to no avail. 

Do other insects transmit Lyme?  Are there other modes of transmission?
What other vectors transmit the co-infections that typically come with Lyme?
When are the “powers that be” going to admit that the interplay of Lyme and various coinfections require far more than 21 days of doxycycline?
When are the “powers that be” going to admit that this complex illness is serious and requires serious treatment?  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/14/live-bb-found-after-months-of-doxy/
Does the antihistamine Loratadine actually work?  https://www.dovepress.com/borreliacidal-activity-of-borrelia-metal-transporter-a-bmta-binding-sm-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-DDDT  According to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, clinical trials are expensive so there hasn’t been one to date – there is only anecdotal evidence.  How about the working group allocate some money to that?
Does ELQ cure Babesia or not? (would more money speed up research?)
We all want Stevia to work but specifics are taking forever – is it a money issue?  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/11/stevia-clinical-trial-underway/
And what about Alzheimer’s and Lyme?  Researchers like Alan McDonald are in their basements using their own microscopes!  
Once again, proving a science cabal exists, Moir recounts how at a Korean conference, attendees were asked to raised hands if they thought infections played a part in AD and a majority of hands went up.
“Ten years ago, it would have been four guys in a corner, all huddled together, not talking to anyone else,” Moir says. 
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/08/09/dr-paul-duray-research-fellowship-foundation-some-great-research-being-done-on-lyme-disease/  Microbiologist Tom Greer states:  “Virtually no funding in any country has been put into Borrelia pathology.” He also states, “There are more than a dozen species of Borrelia that cause Lyme disease, many of which can penetrate any tissue, and add a couple Relapsing Fevers that tag along for the ride, and it becomes clear that the Lyme disease blood tests based on Borrelia burgdorferi detection that have been used for 30+ years have become pretty much useless.”

 

I could go on an on to infinity, but the point is that this emphasis on ticks shouldn’t be the end-all as so many other factors are involved.  Please understand, I’m thankful for all research but don’t stop with ticks!  Researchers need to pretty much scrap everything they thought they knew about Lyme/MSIDS and start over with an open mind.  

Until then we are living in a fantasy.

 

 

 

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks

Presentation on Wisconsin Tick Control- Dr. Paskewitz

Approx. 38 Min.  Jan 16, 2018

Public Tick IPM Working Group: Dr. Paskewitz presentation on the Upper Midwest

She states we have at least a three fold increase of tick borne disease in Wisconsin since the 1990’s.  Anaplasmosis has increased as well.
She also states hardly anything has been done about tick control in Wisconsin and that they must rely on East Coast tick control research – which is unfortunate as there may be significant differences in a host of issues.
Work by others has shown invasives such as honeysuckle (lone star), Japanese Barberry (I.scapulars), https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/09/30/barberry-friend-or-foe/
and unpublished data on Buckthorn (I. scapulars) are related to tick abundance.  
Tick tubes have shown conflicting results.

For more on Paskewitz:  http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/paskewitz/

More on Wisconsin Ticks and Tick borne illnesses:  http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/wisconsin-ticks/

More on Ticks:

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Lyme, Ticks

A Strange Itch, Trouble Breathing, Then Anaphylactic Shock

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/magazine/a-strange-itch-trouble-breathing-then-anaphylactic-shock.html?_r=1

A Strange Itch, Trouble Breathing, Then Anaphylactic Shock

By LISA SANDERS, M.D. JAN. 4, 2018

“I can’t breathe,” the woman panted, her voice a husky monotone. Her sister looked anxiously at the clerk at the triage desk at the University of Iowa hospital emergency room. The woman’s breath was rapid and coarse. Her chest heaved with the work of simply breathing. She pulled at the neck of her sweatshirt — suddenly it was too tight. She pulled it over her head and dropped it to the floor. She was naked beneath the top; she had been in bed when this attack came on.

The 54-year-old woman was helped into a wheelchair and whisked into the inner sanctum of the E.R. What followed was a blur of concerned faces, needles and medical data. Her blood pressure was dangerously low; her heart was racing. She was given epinephrine and steroids, but it was hours before she could explain what had happened that night.

She was staying at her mother’s house in rural Iowa, she told the doctors. Just as she was going to bed, she felt a sudden tingling in the palms of her hands. She recognized the sensation immediately: Twice in the past eight years, she had felt the same strange itch on her hands and sometimes her feet. Each time it was quickly followed by a terrifying sense of her throat closing.

Anaphylactic Shock

She had driven herself to her sister’s house, several miles away, and her sister drove her the rest of the way to the hospital. She opened the car window to let in the frigid winter night air. She struggled to breathe. Black spots swam before her eyes, but she willed herself not to pass out.

She had had this kind of allergic reaction twice before but never as severely. She knew from her own research that this was anaphylactic shock — a potentially deadly allergic reaction. After she got the medications, the woman’s symptoms resolved. She stayed in the hospital overnight, and when it was clear that the episode was over, she went back to her mother’s house. She made an appointment to see a local allergy specialist right away.

A Mystified Allergist

The specialist spent nearly two hours going over everything the woman had been exposed to — food, plants, toxins, anything that might have triggered this nearly fatal allergic reaction. There were no new exposures that day, nothing she hadn’t eaten or touched many times before and after this latest attack. The most common cause of severe allergic reactions in adults is food, but the allergist couldn’t identify any likely suspects. He was mystified. He asked her to share her diagnosis when she got one.

For months after returning to her home on Long Island, the woman was anxious about everything she ate, and she worried every night when she went to bed. She always kept a bottle of Benadryl and an EpiPen with her, but still she was terrified about what might happen if she was too far from a hospital the next time.

‘I Need a Nurse!’

When her next attack happened — just 10 months later — she was already in Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in East Patchogue, N.Y. She was being treated with antibiotics for a devastating case of gastroenteritis due to salmonella. Her first meal, after days of nothing but clear liquids, was beef brisket with potatoes and carrots. It smelled good, but she had no appetite. She made herself eat a few bites anyway, knowing it was her first step toward going home.

A couple of hours later, she felt a strange itch on the top of her head. She scratched reflexively. Then the recognition hit her like a slap: Not now, she thought. She grabbed the IV pole, still dripping fluids into her system, and ran out into the hallway. “I need a nurse,” she shouted. Her heart was pounding, and she knew what was coming next. Hospital staffers in scrubs descended on her. Was she having a panic attack? No, an allergy attack, she told them.

They helped her back into bed and gave her oxygen, Benadryl and steroids. “What happened?” someone asked. She told the whole story, plus something she now realized — every one of her attacks seemed to come a few hours after she ate beef. She didn’t go through this every time she had a hamburger or steak; meat was a regular and much-loved part of her diet. But she was pretty sure that she had steak — or beef brisket, this time — before each episode.

Her doctors were dubious. New food allergies — especially severe ones like hers — are uncommon in adults. This was much more likely to be an allergic response to one of the antibiotics they were giving her. The patient, though, found that theory hard to swallow. It might explain this episode, but what about the earlier ones? She hadn’t been on antibiotics then. The doctors had no answer.

Was a Tick to Blame?

A nurse had a different theory about what happened, one the patient had heard before but never believed. There was some kind of tick, the nurse told her, whose bite could make you allergic to meat. She didn’t know much about it. But, the nurse suggested, she should check it out.

The woman had been bitten by ticks before — who on Long Island hasn’t? But was it really possible for a bite to produce this crazy reaction? Indeed it was, she discovered, when she got home and began doing some research. The bite of the lone star tick — named for a white spot shaped like Texas on the arachnid’s back — could cause an allergic reaction to mammalian meat. The trigger was a sugar, identified as galactose-α-1,3-galactose and more casually known as alpha-gal, a carbohydrate found in the flesh of all nonprimate mammals.

How the tick bite triggers this allergy is not yet known. The link between the tick — whose range extends from southern Florida to Maine and as far west as Iowa — and the resulting alpha-gal allergy was first described in 2009 by Thomas Platts-Mills, a professor at the University of Virginia, who himself developed the disorder. Unlike most food allergies, in which symptoms occur within minutes of consuming the allergen, the alpha-gal reaction is delayed. The symptoms — ranging from a rash to nausea to shortness of breath and even anaphylaxis — can appear four to six hours after a meal containing meat. Stranger still, the reaction doesn’t occur after every exposure.

A Diet Changed Forever

The diagnosis of mammalian meat allergy (M.M.A.) can be confirmed with a blood test that identifies antibodies to alpha-gal. The patient contacted Diane Cymerman, an allergist she had seen years earlier for seasonal allergies. Cymerman asked her to list all the foods she consumed before her last episode in the hospital and had her blood tested for antibodies to everything on the list, down to the black pepper and parsley seasoning. And to alpha-gal.

The first results came back the following week: She had a moderate allergy to beef, but everything else was normal. The following month, the test results for alpha-gal antibodies came back. She was wildly allergic to galactose-α-1,3-galactose. Cymerman called the patient with the news. She had to avoid eating meat from mammals — and everything derived from them, including Jell-O and other foods and medications made from gelatin. Even safe foods cooked on a grill that has also been used for meat can be contaminated with enough alpha-gal to trigger a reaction.

The patient contacted the allergist back in Iowa and told him what she had. He was amazed. He had only recently heard a lecture on this phenomenon. He had never seen it before her case.

It hasn’t been easy for this Iowa transplant to give up beef and other meat that comes from mammals. Some days, she tells me, just thinking about a juicy hamburger or steak makes her stomach growl. But she remembers her terror and that long drive to the Iowa hospital and sticks to chicken, fish and vegetables.

Lisa Sanders, M.D., is a contributing writer for the magazine and the author of “Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis.” If you have a solved case to share with Dr. Sanders, write her at Lisa.Sandersmd@gmail.com.

________________

**Comment**

For more on Alpha-Gal:  http://alpha-gal.org

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/12/tick-related-red-meat-allergy-found-in-minnesota-wisconsin/

Approx. 5 Min.

Great video by Dr. Greger at nutritionfacts.org on tick bites, meat allergies, and chronic urticaria

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/05/paralysis-tick-the-immune-system/  Australian allergy specialist Sheryl van Nunen got her red meat allergy mystery solved when there was a surge in allergic reactions in the U.S. to a drug, Cetuximab, used to treat colorectal cancer developed using a mouse cell line, also containing alpha-gal.

Pause

If you haven’t read the articles on vaccines, please do.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/a-word-on-vaccines/ and https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/vaccines-continued/
Some vaccines used to be run through mouse brains. This is important to know as mice are one of the biggest reservoirs for borrelia, the causative agent known to cause Lyme Disease.

More damning evidence of the mouse/vaccine connection:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/15/vaccines-and-retroviruses-a-whistleblower-reveals-what-the-government-is-hiding/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Ticks, vaccines, Viruses

Developing New Tests to Identify ALL Bacteria in Ticks – Drexel University

https://www.lymedisease.org/drexel-new-tick-testing/

LYME SCI: Developing new tests to identify ALL bacteria in ticks

by Lonnie Marcum

Researchers at Philadelphia’s Drexel University College of Medicine have joined the fight against tick-borne diseases and are asking citizens throughout the US to send them ticks.

Drexel’s Center for Advanced Microbial Processing (CAMP) has developed a state-of-the-art facility using comprehensive high-resolution testing able to detect all bacteria inside of ticks—not just Lyme disease and its better-known co-infections.

The goal of CAMP is to identify emerging pathogens and use that information to find targeted therapies to cure infection and illness.

Garth Ehrlich, PhD, holds professorships in two departments at Drexel—Microbiology & Immunology, and Otolaryngology. He’s also Executive Director of CAMP. He first thought of testing ticks while working on a different project a couple years ago.

Dr. Ehrlich knew about Lyme disease at the time, and started thinking his “Pan Domain Test” might be useful to identify the many different bacteria that are carried by ticks. After looking further, he realized most tick testing done in the past was limited to just a few common pathogens.

The Pan Domain test is unique. It uses “next-generation sequencing” to look for specific genetic markers and is able to detect every bacterium known to science—in just one test. This is different from PCR or ELISA testing, which require a separate test for each suspected pathogen.

In the end, Dr. Ehrlich hopes to have a comprehensive picture of exactly what diseases are carried by ticks in the U.S. Along the same lines, a recent study in France found that 45% of ticks carried five different pathogens. See:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sci-coinfections/

Current tick testing at CAMP is only set up to detect bacteria. The second phase of the study will look for parasites and fungi found in the same ticks. At this time, the researchers want as many ticks as they can get from diverse parts of the country. This information will give a clearer picture of which tick-borne diseases are the biggest risks in different regions.

Dr. Ehrlich’s goal is to bring the test to the public for human testing. He says that if all goes as planned, the bacterial assay could be available in 2018, with the parasite/fungi test about three to six months behind that. He estimates that his Pan Domain testing will cost significantly less than traditional testing for each pathogen. Not only is it cheaper, but the Pan Domain test can detect emerging bacteria, for which there currently are no standard tests.

I talked to Dr. Jaroslaw (Jarek) Krol when I was at ILADS in November. Jarek is the lab manager for CAMP and is deeply involved in the development of the genetic sequencing and analysis of the tick-testing project. He told me that preliminary tick testing has detected up to 60 different bacteria in northeastern ticks. Since co-infections compound illness and complicate treatment, the ability to rapidly detect many infections at once would be invaluable.

Dr. Krol says ticks can be sent in dead or alive. However, if you are going to send in more than one tick, please bag them separately. Ticks can share germs, he says, which can skew test results.

Click here to download the instructions and form for sending your ticks to CAMP:  http://drexel.edu/medicine/about/departments/institute-for-molecular-medicine-infectious-disease/Research-Centers-of-Excellence/center-for-advanced-microbial-processing/microbiome-testing-on-ticks/

Important note: CAMP testing is for research only. You will not be sent results of the testing. If you have been bitten by a tick and want to know what pathogens you were exposed to, you can send it to the University of Massachusetts’ TickReport. You should receive results within three business days.  https://www.tickreport.com

LymeSci is written by Lonnie Marcum, a Licensed Physical Therapist and mother of a daughter with Lyme. Follow her on Twitter: @LonnieRhea Email her at: lmarcum@lymedisease.org.

 

Category:

research, Testing, Ticks