Okay, so those are not my words, but the title of a new blog post (Dec. 16, 2015)by a great doc. I can't post the whole article, so here is a teaser, but I would surely recommend for all to read it!
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Research from Dr. Zhang’s lab at JH shatters many iconic beliefs about
Lyme therapies.
We know that Lyme disease, or rather the causative organism, Borrelia burdorferi, is very difficult eradicate. In vitro (in a test tube) it took a combination of 3 antibiotics to accomplish the task. Doxycycline was a requirement. The other drugs are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, (cefoperazone and daptomycin).
Persistent viability of the spirochete relates to its ability to form round body forms and other pleomorphic variants and to from aggregates of spirochetes protected by a muccopolysaccharide covering. Rather that the terms: L forms, cyst forms and biofilm colonies, Dr. Zhang simplifies: there are two groups, rapidly dividing forms (spirochetes) and stationary forms (persisters).
Cocktails of drugs are needed to eradicate the organism. At this point we know little about
the synergy of various combinations.
First off, this is not new, but Lyme does not form L-forms. L forms are bacterial lacking a cell wall, like mycoplasma. Alternatively, some gram negative bacteria, treated with antibiotics shed their cells walls transforming into L forms. L forms cannot survive outside the milieu of the intracellular cytoplasm of the host cells. Lyme spirochetes are encased in a dual membrane, not a cell wall. Although the bacteria may have an intracellular
location they are primarily extracellular. Cell wall drugs work because the Lyme spirochetes have something like an internal skeleton comprised of cell wall material, peptidoglycans. Lyme does not form true cysts. The terms round body form and pleomorphic variants is more accurate.
I don’t like the term cyst busters (always reminds me of ghost busters). It may be easier to consider Lyme as a dichotomy of spirochetes and persisters.
I am sorry that I have bored you so far. The rest may be of greater interest.
Doxycycline remains the first line when it comes to treating spirochete forms. Doxy has no impact on stationary forms. You already knew this.
New facts:
Flagyl is not a “cyst buster.” It does not kill stationary forms any better than doxycycline. ( you probably did not know this) This also true for amoxicillin. Ceftin does have the ability to kill both active and stationary forms of Lyme. Rifampin does not kill Lyme by itself but confers persister killing effects to doxycycline and amoxicillin.
I was sure that Tindamax must kill stationary forms. It works so well in the clinical setting. So I asked Dr. Zhang and he responded. Unpublished data show that Tindamax is ineffective against stationary form of Lyme, perhaps slightly better than Flagyl. How could I be so wrong?
Then there is a long list of drugs that kill Lyme better than currently used drugs, at least in a test tube. Two drugs stand out: Diflucan and Artemisinin.
To read more (and I encourage you to), please follow the link:
lymemd.blogspot.com/2015/12/cyst-busters-we-had-it-wrong-all-along.html