2 More Thoughts On Birds, Cool Shirts, And My Evil Twin?

More On Ticks And The Atlantic Flyway:

I continue to think about the role of birds carrying ticks to different regions and how Lyme disease (and other tickborne infections) could be spread that way. But much as I found the overlay map I posted earlier this week to be intriguing, I don't think that tracking infected ticks on birds is as simple as following major and principal flyways - even though that could be a reasonable point to start an investigation.

Yale has already done some work in this area, and I have no idea whether or not they've factored the results of this publication, "Do birds affect Lyme disease risk? Range expansion of the vector-borne pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi", into their recently published Lyme disease risk map.

It's important not to discount the role of birds here:

"Although the role of birds in B burgdorferi transmission dynamics is often discounted, data compiled from published studies indicate that the majority (58.6%) of bird species that have been evaluated are capable of infecting larval I scapularis with B burgdorferi. We estimated – for two bird species – that the number of individual birds required to produce one infected I scapularis larva is as low as three, and we conclude that bird-mediated tick movement is an important factor in the range expansion of both I scapularis and B burgdorferi."

Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/090062

There are certain behaviors birds engage in and seasonal activities which would lead to a higher likelihood of birds contributing to the spread of Lyme disease on the ground. Specific kinds of birds would be more likely to contribute to infection spread than others - for example, I suspect birds which build their nests on the ground and are ground-based hunters are more likely to contribute to infected tick populations than birds which build their nests in trees. Also, some birds feast on ticks (such as guinea fowl) and they will lower local tick populations.

These are just a few examples - there are many more. I imagine there is no simple algorithm for determining the role for birds in spreading infection. I don't know what all the factors are which would contribute to the spread of Lyme disease via birds, and it's something I continue to look into because it does play an important role in surveillance and determining how infection could spread through different vectors.

Photo credit: Andreas Trepte, www.photo-natur.de

Cool Lyme Disease T-shirts:

While doing a general search for Lyme disease related news the other day, I came across these shirts on Cafe Press:

I think they must have had me in mind as a target demographic, because it's the first Lyme disease related t-shirt that  I've seen which appealed to my appreciation of the TV show, "The Big Bang Theory", and also appealed to my appreciation on word play while mentioning Lyme disease research. It says "More nervous tics than a Lyme disease research facility"- playing on the word "tics" or "ticks".

There are a number of products for sale with this slogan on it (not just t-shirts) at Cafe Press  -  I don't know who is selling them and if they're another Lyme disease patient or not - the product page did not display this information. Check it out if you think it's something you'd like, too.

My Evil Twin?

It's been pointed out to me that I have a doppelganger online named Tom Carolan. He has Lyme disease blog, Tick Borne Diseases Radio, with entries in it which upon reading looked strikingly similar to my own blog at first glance. However, after more examination,  it's clear Tom's blog contains different content and his own unique commentary on the same topics which have grabbed my attention.

(Just so everyone knows, I have no problem with anyone passing on the content I write here as long as you give this blog credit and link to it. That's why I have a Creative Commons license posted at the bottom of each entry - so you know I support a more open source approach to copyright.)

Tom also has a podcast on iTunes on Tick Borne Diseases:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tick-borne-disease-radio/id306917344

How about going over there to Tom's site and giving it a good read, and encouraging him to continue to post more podcasts and blog entries? It looks like he has a good thing going on and more content like his would be welcome - particularly more podcasts.

This work by Camp Other is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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0 Administrivia: Notes & Future Topics

Just popping in here for a moment amid fighting off some strange viral infection to leave a few short notes for my readers:

• When I'm feeling particularly unwell above and beyond my usual unwell, posting frequency may slow down. I'll try to give advance notice in comments or in a post like this one.
  
• Here's your notice: My posting frequency is slowing down now because I'm unwell.
  
• In general, new posts are less likely to be made during the weekend. What do I mean by "weekend" given everyone reading is in different time zones? Refer to island time.
  
• If I'm near a computer, I will check comments in the moderation queue during the weekend and post them.
  
• I may or may not respond to comments during weekends.
  
• Friday Four posts are sometimes posted as late as midnight Friday, Honolulu time (-10 h UTC/GMT).
  
• Reader comment & mailbag has included the following requests for further discussion: the immune system and how to build it, alternative medicine, XMRV, Morgellons, and the effectiveness of canine Borrelia blood tests.
  
• I plan to write an entry or two on each of these topics in the future. There is no guarantee on how soon each will be addressed. The timeline for each is dependent on my health, availability, other preexisting or newsworthy posts already in the pipeline, and the amount of time needed for additional reading and research to address each issue.
  
• Lymenet Europe has some interesting threads on Lyme disease organizations throughout Europe. I recommend viewing some of them, as well as guidelines different countries use. Tip: If you use the Chrome browser, you can translate web sites in other languages into English with a click of a button.

And now your moment of patient experience zen... This is something I think about when I get sick or am more symptomatic than usual - maybe some of you reading along will see yourself in it, too:

All I have to add for now. I'm going to lie down.

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0 The Friday Four

Bringing you four news-worthy or interesting bits to your Friday, this edition focuses on nanoparticles in vaccine development (mentioned in the vlsE patent), differences in spinal fluid in Lyme disease and CFS patients,  an artificial intestine for researching bacteria, and how drug information is presented differently online for Americans and Canadians.

1) Virus-Mimicking Nanoparticles Can Stimulate Long-Lasting Immunity

Vaccine scientists say their "Holy Grail" is to stimulate immunity that lasts for a lifetime. Live viral vaccines such as the smallpox or yellow fever vaccines provide immune protection that lasts several decades, but despite their success, scientists have remained in the dark as to how they induce such long lasting immunity.

ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2011,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/02/110223133846.htm

Original Source Publication:
Sudhir Pai Kasturi, Ioanna Skountzou, Randy A. Albrecht, Dimitrios Koutsonanos, Tang Hua, Helder I. Nakaya, Rajesh Ravindran, Shelley Stewart, Munir Alam, Marcin Kwissa, Francois Villinger, Niren Murthy, John Steel, Joshy Jacob, Robert J. Hogan, Adolfo García-Sastre, Richard Compans, Bali Pulendran. Programming the magnitude and persistence of antibody responses with innate immunity. Nature, 2011; 470 (7335): 543 DOI:10.1038/nature09737


Comments: It's worth reading more about this technology and how it affects the immune system, given it is one application of the vmp-like DNA sequence, vlsE, that patent holders are looking to use.

2) Spinal Fluid Proteins Distinguish Lyme Disease From Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Patients who suffer from Neurologic Post Treatment Lyme disease (nPTLS) and those with the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome report similar symptoms. However unique proteins discovered in spinal fluid can distinguish those two groups from one another and also from people in normal health, according to new research conducted by a team led by Steven E. Schutzer, MD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – New Jersey Medical School, and Richard D. Smith, Ph.D., of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This finding, published in the journal PLoS ONE (February 23, 2011), also suggests that both conditions involve the central nervous system and that protein abnormalities in the central nervous system are causes and/or effects of both conditions.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/plos-sfp021811.php
Original Source Publication: http://www.plosone.org/article/metrics/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017287

Comments: This is a fascinating study, and I would like to see a confirmatory study with a larger group of subjects. Particularly notable to those with CFS or Lyme disease is this bit from the original paper: "An illustration, where the same proteins are elevated in abundance in both conditions, but at different magnitudes, is provided by inspection of proteins in the complement system. This is of interest because both syndromes may be triggered by infections (nPTLS in all cases by B. burgdorferi; many CFS cases by one or more microbes yet to be identified). We found that the complement cascade related proteins were identified and significantly enriched in both CFS and nPTLS pooled CSF proteomes by the Fisher Exact test (p = 0.005) implemented in Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (Figure S1A). In individual patient samples analyzed, we identified and quantified 4 components (C1S, C4B, C1QB, C1QC) which are seen with activation of the complement cascade and which were differentially increased in abundance consistently across the nPTLS patients compared to CFS (Figure S1B and C). This represents the type of data that can be useful in the formulation of pathogenetic hypotheses because the role of complement in these disorders is under-explored." Also noteworthy is this bit:"... identification of diagnostic CSF biomarkers may be the necessary prelude to a search for the same markers in the highly complex blood, because it permits targeted searches for markers that might otherwise be obscured or have uncertain relevance." This, I think, is a roundabout way of saying that CSF biomarker analysis may be of more utility than serological testing. The downsides are obvious: 1) this test could be used to support a hypothesis of a post-infectious syndrome without considering the possibility of current infection, and 2) lumbar punctures are higher risk and more invasive than standard blood tests. What I'd like to see, though, is a study comparing CSF proteins in those with "nPLDS" and acute Lyme disease... now that might be interesting.

3) Scientists Devise Artificial Intestine to Help Engineer Disease-Fighting Gut Bacteria

Confocal microscope image of caco-2 cells on
collagen scaffold, after staining for
actin (green) and nucleic acid (blue).

Cornell professor John March is attempting to transform bacteria in our gut into disease-fighting machines. Now, thanks to two members of his research team, he has a powerful new tool to help him do so: an artificial intestine.

The 3-D hydrogel scaffolds developed by graduate student Jiajie Yu and former postdoctoral researcher Jong Hwan Sung will allow scientists to grow cells under realistic physiological conditions, an important breakthrough. Until now, they have had to rely on two-dimensional cultures or live animal models.



Source: http://www.sciguru.com/newsitem/6306/Scientists-devise-artificial-intestine-to-help-engineer-disease-fighting-gut-bacteria-/

Comments: I just think this is cool... and imagine the potential applications, such as testing the action of probiotics against C. Diff. Seems like this is the closest we can get to an in vivo model but it's still in vitro.

4) Americans and Canadians Get Different Drug Information Online: UBC study

Americans and Canadians are getting vastly different search results when they look up prescription drug information online, says a study by researchers at the University of British Columbia.



Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/uobc-aac022211.php

Comments: This is one reason why when doing drug side effect and interaction research, one should always be aware of what results are presented. I would actually invest some time in reviewing the pharmaceutical companies' package insert data sheets, because they are fairly reliable for what side effects do occur. But I would also look for additional less common side effects in patient reports on review sites -- and check reliable sites for interactions with herbs and supplements -- as those are rarely mentioned in any pharmaceutical insert sheets.

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0 The Friday Four

Bringing you four links on Friday you may be interested in and don't want to miss...

1. Takes a licking, keeps on ticking... that's the story of ticks in your washer and dryer.
   
   
   
   
   Okay, I know this isn't news, but it may be to someone and because it is important, I am reposting it here:
   
   Wash and dry clothes at HIGH temperatures after spending time in areas known to harbor ticks.
   
   If you can get clothes that can withstand an hour of being in a dryer on a high temperature setting - all the better.
   
   
   Excerpts from this research include:
   

   "Carroll used a combination of water temperature settings and detergent types to wash the ticks. The majority of lone star ticks survived all the water-detergent combinations with no obvious side effects. Most of the deer ticks lived through the cold and warm water settings as well. But when one type of detergent was used with a hot water setting, only 25 percent of the deer ticks survived.
   
   When it came time to dry, all the ticks of both species died after an hour of tumbling around at high heat. But when the dryer was set to "no heat," about one-third of the deer ticks and more than half of the lone star ticks survived."

2. I know an old lady who swallowed a fly... I don't know why she swallowed that fly... perhaps she'll die?  Hope not.
   
   

   

   Leishmania

   So as the story goes - or this particular variation of it - that sand fly had Leishmania infection, and get this? The Leishmania parasite was also infected with a virus that can trigger a severe response in macrophages, allowing the parasite to do more harm in animal infections
   
   
   
   In humans, the parasite's viral infection may be why some strains of Leishmania in Central and South America tend to cause a disfiguring form of disease that erodes the soft tissues around the nose and mouth
   
   
   How often does this sort of infectious piggybacking go on? This brings more issues to light when discussing polymicrobialism. 
   
   
   We just don't know how all these organisms are interacting - or even that they are there.
   
   
3. On the other hand... Maybe you should hold off on that parasite cleanse. Do you have abdominal pain or symptoms of IBS, celiac disease, MS, asthma, or food allergies? Thinking of doing a parasite cleanse? You may just want to hold off on that cleanse, depending on what is bugging you: Research is being done on the benefits of certain parasites in human hosts with the above conditions.
   
   
   
   The treatment used is called Helminthic therapy, where patients are inoculated with specific intestinal parasitic nematodes and monitored for improvements in their conditions.
   
   Helminthic therapy is based on the hygeine hypothesis. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that appropriate immune response is in part learned by exposure to these microorganisms and parasites, and in part regulated by their presence. In industrialised nations, humans are exposed to somewhat lower levels of these organisms. The development of vaccines, hygienic practices, and effective medical care have diminished or eliminated the prevalence and impact of many parasitic organisms, as well as bacterial and viral infections. This has been of obvious benefit with the effective eradication of many diseases that have plagued human beings. However, while many severe diseases have been eradicated, humans' exposure to benign and apparently beneficial parasites has also been reduced commensurately.
   
   
4. Women with anemia - low iron levels - need to know this.  Dr. Kathryn Clancy writes a blog with informative medical information in it, and this recent post is no exception.
   
   Remember the old saw about how women have lower iron levels than men and are more likely to have anemia due to menstruation? Well, it looks like bunk. 

Red blood cells (RBC) and hemoglobin (Hg) are positively correlated
with endometrial thickness (from Clancy et al 2006). Click for a closer look.

Dr. Clancy sites studies stating the following:

• The sex difference in iron status in males and females derives from an increase in male iron stores at puberty, not a decrease in female iron stores. This has to do with oxygen transport and testosterone (Bergstrom et al 1995).
  
  
• The main culprit for iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) in men is upper-gastrointestinal bleeding, so when men present with IDA the first thing they do is an endoscopy. When women present with IDA they give her iron supplements and tell her to go home because it's just her ladybusiness. Kepczyk et al (1999) decided to actually do endoscopies on women for whom a gynecological source was diagnosed by a specialist for their IDA. They found a whopping eighty-six percent of these women had a gastrointestinal disease that was likely causing their IDA.
  
  
• Resumption of menses after pregnancy is positively associated with hemoglobin. That iron stores increase once you start getting your period again, indicate again that menses is not having a negative effect on iron stores.

The good doctor's advice to women?

"Ladies, unless you are menorrhagic (bleeding more than 120 milliliters each cycle) your period is not doing you wrong. If you have iron-deficiency anemia and your doctor is insisting it's because you slough off your endometrium from time to time without doing a single test to confirm it, you may want to insist on an endoscopy. It could save your life."

Have a good weekend, readers... I am still working on my post-dated citations, so expect to see more posts in the meantime before that list is published.

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