How Lyme disease subverts the immune system
Press release from the University of California, Davis:
July 2, 2015
The bacteria that cause Lyme disease are able to trick an animal’s immune system into not launching a full-blown immune response or developing lasting immunity to the disease, report researchers at the University of California, Davis.
The discovery may explain why some human patients remain vulnerable to repeat infections by the same strain of bacteria, especially in regions where Lyme disease is prevalent. It also suggests that blood tests may not be an effective method for detecting previous exposure to Lyme disease, by far the most common vector-borne disease in the United States and Europe.
Findings from this mouse-based study are reported July 2 in the online scientific journal PLOS Pathogens, published by the Public Library of Science.
“We demonstrated that an animal infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, the corkscrew-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme disease, launches only a short-lived immune response, and that protective immunity against repeat infections quickly wanes,” said Nicole Baumgarth, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and an authority on immune response to infectious diseases at the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine.
“This study also suggests a possible mechanism responsible for the disappearance of antibodies following infection and subsequent treatment with antibiotics,” she said.
The Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria are transmitted to humans and animals through bites from infected ticks. Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, fatigue and a characteristic skin rash. If left untreated, the infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system. About 300,000 cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed annually in the United States.
The bacteria initially trigger a strong immune response in an infected animal, but findings from this study indicate that the bacteria soon cause structural abnormalities in “germinal centers” — sites in lymph nodes and other lymph tissues that are key to producing a long-term protective immune response.
For months after infection, those germinal centers fail to produce the specific cells — memory B cells and antibody-producing plasma cells — that are crucial for producing lasting immunity. In effect, the bacteria prevent the animal’s immune system from forming a “memory” of the invading bacteria and launching a protective immune response against future infections.
The researchers found that following Borrelia burgdorferi infection, this process even prevented induction of strong immune responses to an influenza infection.
Funding for the study was provided by grants from National Institutes of Health and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
I am happy with all the research finally being done but in God’s name please figure out how to cure us. Life is unbearable.
Thank you for saying it. I too suffer after 4 years undiagnosed. 8 months of antibiotics & there is light at the end of the tunnel, finally! Not sure why the CDC doesn’t get it.
Exactly.
I have no income, no doc..
Unbearable life. This is my personal lyme/morgellons journal…
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/slippingaway
I hate to day this or sound negatively however I think the reason is money there is no money in CURE. Sad however i feel it is true.
So if antibody response is only short lived, it would seem that a vaccine for lyme would be a complete failure and would do far more harm than good “this process even prevented induction of strong immune responses to an influenza infection.” Correct?
Last year [2014] I did not feel well lethargy, neck pain & one nite i woke up soaking wet [I never sweat] There was a mark [?] on my back behind my shoulder I could not see it. I had an MD appot. so I asked hew she said it was a spider bite. Two days later I woke with a blotched rash on my chest I went to a local Urgent Care and saw a PA he diagnosed the rash as GIANT HIVES & prescribed Predisone [I have since learned that feeds the spirochete that causes Lyme’s. The rash became larger in size. I had lunch with my two friends who have degrees in epidimology [sp] they called the PA & told him it was Lyme’s tapered off Pred. & immediately started on Doxycline [sp] the rash started to fade almost immediately. As a retired nurse I think all medical personal need more education in Lyme’s not only MD’s also nurses etc etc.
If I suspect I am exposed to any virus, cold, flu or otherwise, I rush into an herbal assault to protect myself. When you are this ill you really cannot tell when something like pneumonia is creeping into your lungs. Everything, anything, can turn into a worst case scenario. A month goes by and you wake up fighting another life-threatening illness.
Carry a good quality mask, too!
um so what I gather from what i read, unless ur body produces a memory cell that recognize the infection, and can fight it off ur basically prone to getting relapses? if anyone can make sense of what I just read plz let me know if I understood correctly
It just means every time the body encounters Lyme bacteria, it is as though you have never had it before. No immunity gets made. So you can get Lyme over and over.
My best friend who was diagnosed with LD 2 years ago was sent to UC Davis by her fam Dr. Her appointment was yesterday Feb 22, 2017. Today she got a call from UC Davis saying she does not have Lyme but instead its RA caused by an autoimmune disease. I warned her about this. Next thing they will want her on steroids. So very frustrating!!
I have had great results with daily Claritin and cholestyramine following Iv antibiotics and a relapse that left me physically diplitated for 11 years and antibiotic that was needed to reduce inflammation hot spots. Since 2016 when it was determined that my physical
Dipilitation was due to the Lyme toxins not leaving my body due to a genetic componet or an immune problem. From what I underderstand the Claritin starves the Lyme and for me the chlesyromine rids my body of the toxins. This discovered after filling a protocal with alinia. I am 68 and have had chronic Lyme since 1999 The Claritin and
Cholestyramine has been a miracle for me physically. I had one relapse last year during a very stressful move out of state following a script of doxy for 3 weeks I was good again. I am concerned about how my immune system is reacting especially as I get older.