8 Round Two: Lyme Disease Research Scavenger Hunt

So I  began a little online scavenger hunt game here at Camp Other, and we completed round one about two weeks ago. So far, since only one entry has been submitted by Rita - Rita, you are the winner of round one by default. I say even without competition for that round, take a bow for the work you put into researching your answer for round one. Now I'll present those who wish to play along with our basic game instructions and round two of the scavenger hunt: This is an online scavenger hunt to determine which Lyme disease research being...

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3 Antiscience letter and conflicts of interest

Since I finally had the opportunity to read the full text of the antiscience and Lyme disease advocacy letter in the Lancet, someone asked me if the letter had any stated conflicts of interest attached to its full text version. Yes, it does - and here is the stated conflicts of interest portion: Conflicts of interest PGA has served as a consultant for Oxford Diagnostics and has participated in expert testimony in two medicolegal suits about possible Lyme disease. He has equity interest in Johnson & Johnson, no products of which are...

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2 Admin: Writer's Scatter, Rather Than Writer's Block

A more personal note here from CO: I think I have the opposite of writer's block at the moment, and I'm calling it writer's scatter. While Lyme disease has left me with shoddy memory at times (Did I leave the water running? Did I leave something in the toaster?) in terms of concentration I am all over the map. I can be intensely focused on something for hours and the rest of the world disappears, or I can be so mentally scattered my mind will not rest on one idea at a time for more than a minute or two. This is where I am at the moment, and...

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0 News: In Wisconsin, Illnesses spread by ticks on rise

The Wisconsin Rapids Tribune has this article on tap today: Illnesses spread by ticks on rise Excerpts: Consistent testing and an increase in deer ticks are driving up the number of tick-borne illnesses reported annually in Wisconsin, health officials said. Statewide, cases of the bacteria infections anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis -- both spread by deer ticks -- increased 70 percent from 2009 to 2010, when 546 cases were reported, according to state data. "It's nice to be able to pick (anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis) up, so a patient can be...

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21 Letter: Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy of Lyme disease

Well, it's time for a little commentary on a recent publication which has been making the rounds in the Lyme disease patient community - this time on a letter which has been published to the Lancet recently. The letter is basically about those who believe Lyme disease can be a chronic, difficult to diagnose disease are part of an antiscience movement, and how the media, politics, and advocacy groups have supported unorthodox views concerning Lyme disease and other tickborne infections. I'll post the excerpts in full first, and then a second time...

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1 Immune + Infection = HLA-DR alleles determine responsiveness to Borrelia burgdoferi

Recently I've been reviewing the relationship between specific genetic haplotypes and alleles and the development of chronic Lyme arthritis. One speculation that I had made early on was that I suspected chronic and persisting symptoms were the result of both immune dysregulation and persisting infection - and here is one paper which points out this may be the case... HLA-DR alleles determine responsiveness to Borrelia burgdoferi antigens Bettina Panagiota Iliopoulou, Mireia Guerau-de-Arellano, and Brigitte T. Huber. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 December;...

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0 Video: Baloney Detection Kit

I found this video narrated by Michael Shermer, a skeptic, which discusses a 10 question baloney detection kit which is similar in nature to Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit. I recommend it for its straight-forward approach and good questions to ask - and though it is made by the Dawkins foundation, its focus is not about religion but on questioning evidence. Check it out... [Video time: 14:40] This work by Camp Other is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licens...

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13 More on Genetic Haplotypes and Lyme Arthritis

So, the more I read, the more unanswered questions there are. Staying on top of all the latest research becomes a job in itself. Earlier this week, I posted a variety of papers which showed a potential (according to the authors, statistically significant) relationship between haplotype and the development of chronic Lyme arthritis. Then my attention was drawn to this 2008 paper, and I realized I shouldn't have stopped at papers in 2007 before writing my post about genetic haplotypes... Human Homologues of a Borrelia T cell Epitope Associated...

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5 Abstract: A tick mannose-binding lectin inhibitor interferes with the vertebrate complement cascade

A tick mannose-binding lectin inhibitor interferes with the vertebrate complement cascade to enhance transmission of the lyme disease agent. Schuijt TJ, Coumou J, Narasimhan S, Dai J, Deponte K, Wouters D, Brouwer M, Oei A, Roelofs JJ, van Dam AP, van der Poll T, Van't Veer C, Hovius JW, Fikrig E. Cell Host Microbe. 2011 Aug 18;10(2):136-46. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21843870?dopt=Abstract Comments: It occurs to me that a lot of the concern from the Lyme patient community over the use of vaccines could be eliminated if R &...

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24 Do Different Genetic Haplotypes Matter?

It seems people are still holding on to the HLA-DR2 and HLA-DR4 concept of subgroup autoimmunity (subgroups of Lyme disease patients who do not respond to additional antibiotic treatment) in the Lyme disease community. I get the impression that hypothesis has been dropped by a number of researchers in favor of a new one - except in the case of patients with Lyme arthritis. (I don't think HLA-DR2 is associated with Lyme disease, either, and HLA-DR4 is associated with Lyme arthritis.) I came across this recently: National Institute of Allergy...

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3 Round One: Lyme Disease Guidelines Research Scavenger Hunt

So, I've decided to start a little game here on Camp Other blog. It is an online scavenger hunt to determine which Lyme disease research being conducted in which universities and colleges involves or has involved members of the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines group. I'm going to list Lyme disease related research either completed or currently being done in Column A, and in Column B, list the educational institution where the research was (or is) being conducted. How to play: Match the research in Column A with the correct educational institution...

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1 Paper: Evaluating Research Quality

This is a brilliant, well-written publication, Evaluating Research Quality, on how to assess the quality of research you are reading - written by Todd Litman at the Victoria Transport Policy Institute - which is "an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative and practical solutions to transportation problems". Read Evaluating Research Quality Here: http://www.vtpi.org/resqual.pdf Todd provides a number of examples of what makes good, well-informed research and what is biased, ill-informed research, drawing from examples...

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7 Tracking Lyme Disease in Dogs May Help Protect Humans: MedlinePlus

For the study,  a team led by Dr. Paul Mead, a CDC medical epidemiologist, used data from 46 states on human and canine Lyme disease prevalence. Comparing the data, Mead's team found that when 1 percent or less of the dogs tested positive for Lyme disease, the risk of people becoming infected was low. However, when more than 5 percent of the dogs were infected, the risk to people was high. Read More Here: Tracking Lyme Disease in Dogs May Help Protect Humans: MedlinePlus Comment: This is the kind of low cost surveillance data I...

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4 News: Abbott Introduces New Vector-Borne Pathogen Test

Excerpt: Abbott's Ibis Biosciences today introduced a new molecular assay to detect a wide variety of vector-borne microorganisms, including those known to cause Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis. The PLEX-ID™ Vector-borne test, which is intended for non-diagnostic use, has been designed to support bioresearch, environmental surveillance, and other activities central to the detection and identification of vector-borne pathogens. Dr. Eshoo led a study in which vector-borne disease surveillance...

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12 Paper: Alzheimer's disease - a neurospirochetosis.

Miklossy has recently published a work on a probable causal relationship with infection with spirochetes in the brain and Alzheimer's disease which has many people talking. Here's the abstract: Alzheimer's disease - a neurospirochetosis. Analysis of the evidence following Koch's and Hill's criteria. Judith Miklossy Journal of Neuroinflammation 2011, 8:90 doi:10.1186/1742-2094-8-90 Published: 4 August 2011 Abstract (provisional) It is established that chronic spirochetal infection can cause slowly progressive dementia, brain atrophy and amyloid...

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0 Blog Log: Lyme Jello

Someone sent word of this blog to me in email, and I hopped over there and took a look at it and agreed it was a good read so far. Not only that, but this art is fantastic. It describes in one image the dilemma all of us face with being placed under our collective diagnostic labels - whatever they are: "Let's Not Make A Deal" - Artwork from julieridl.wordpress.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Awesome. Hats off to you, Julie - you're a great artist and you capture...

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4 Comments on Comments On Yet Another Lyme Disease Article

So here we go again, another article on chronic Lyme disease - this time one which is more about the patients' experiences, and a little about the controversy on extended treatment. Between May and September, the newspapers are full of individual patient stories about their experiences with Lyme disease. So many so, that on any given week if I google "news" and "lyme disease" and select the past week for articles, I'm bound to see several from across the continental United States. There are so many individual stories at this point that I could...

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12 Antibodies linked to long-term Lyme symptoms

Nature has just published an article today on research which shows a relationship between post-Lyme disease syndrome and persistent infection. Armin Alaedini at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and his colleagues have found that patients diagnosed with post-Lyme disease syndrome have antibodies that suggest they carried the infection for an unusually long time. The finding, published in Clinical Immunology, might help the syndrome to be better understood, diagnosed and treated. Bockenstedt is quoted in the article, saying, "This is...

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0 News: New bacterium found causing tick-borne illness ehrlichiosis in Wisconsin and Minnesota

 ScienceDaily (2011-08-03) -- A new tick-borne bacterium infecting humans with ehrlichiosis has been discovered in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Experts say the new species from the Ehrlichia genus can cause a feverish illness in humans. The new bacterium, not yet named, has been identified in more than 25 people and found in black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis), in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Researchers used culture and genetic analyses. Citing from the article, this is important to know: "Doctors need to know to...

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17 Abstract: Invasion of eukaryotic cells by Borrelia burgdorferi requires β(1) integrins and Src kinase activity

Due to ASM's copyright terms on this journal, it's my understanding that I can't post the entire abstract for this publication here - even though abstracts are pretty much something I have long considered open source and commonly shared. Most scientists do - so to find out that some publishing companies and journals don't even want people to repost abstracts seems... well... strange to me. How else does one promote their work to other people? I'd consider it free promotion for the full publication! However, I wanted to share it with you however...

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16 Abstract: Chronic Tick Associated Poly-organic Syndrome

Diagnosis and treatment challenges in patients with chronic Tick Associated Poly-organic Syndrome (TAPOS) - Case series A. Radulescu, M. Flonta, D. Tatulescu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj, Romania, The Teaching Hospital of Infectious Diseases, Cluj, Romania Int J Infect Dis 2010;14 Background: Chronic Lyme disease is often considered in case of long lasting miscellaneous symptoms after tick bites. Despite new codified diagnosis algorithm and treatment persistent signs and symptoms frequently occur. The aim of the study was to assess...

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