The most complex Lyme study in the world.

I have read literally hundreds of scientific journal entries, articles, and pier-reviewed research publications about Lyme. Most of them, I have found to be relatively intuitive, straightforward and easy to follow and comprehend. I fancy myself as an intelligent well read person with a good vocabulary. I consider myself to be well educated about Lyme and coinfections, and although there is a lot that it is still unknown by modern science about these diseases, I like to think that I am well informed of the science of Lyme that IS known.

I have no medical or scientific background, but I usually find that I am able to piece together most complex anatomical, biological and medical terms to where I can at least comprehend the gist of what is being said. That is until I found this research article. This is by far the most complex research article about Lyme, or perhaps any other subject for that matter, that I have ever read. I just wanted to share this with some of the scientific heavy hitters here on HW and anyone else that may be interested.

I'd really like to kick this one around with fellow Lyme patients and some of the amateur microbiologists here on this site and get some thoughts. If you are one who enjoys a good intellectual challenge, or mental exercise, this is definitely for you.

Be forewarned, if you are experiencing a particularly 'brain-foggy' day, it might be best to skip this one, or you will find yourself completely lost by the 2nd sentence. I think I made it to about paragraph 3 before my intellectual horsepower could no longer keep up, but I finished it, and will probably read it again at least 3-4 more times to try to let it all soak in.

The best I was able to ascertain from this is that there are certain genetic biomarkers(?) that Lyme leaves in the human body that can serve as clues of infection and this could possibly lead to more advanced testing methods in the future that can rely on these genetic biomarkers instead of the antibody tests that are used today. Thats about all I could absorb. The jargon and acronyms are just so thick, and I think the article is referring to the human genome and genetics, as well metabolic inflammatory pathways, neither subject I am very familiar with.

Anyone who could further enlighten as to what this study is actually saying, or that has any thoughts about this at all would certainly be helpful.

Enjoy:

http://mbio.asm.org/content/7/1/e00100-16.full.pdf+html[url]

http://mbio.asm.org/content/7/1/e00100-16.full.pdf+html

Yeah John Aucott is one of the authors and I think he's one of the CDC/IDSA villains, so they use that invalidated stat, but other than that, the methods they use here are pretty rock solid.

I also noticed by reading it again that the study states that 29% of the Lyme patients that were tested never produced antibodies. This is important because it calls into question current testing methods.