Not sure if this was posted before. I am from the Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Disease boards really, but thought this may be of interest to some on here.
Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, forms drug-tolerant persister cells.
aac.asm.org/content/early/2015/05/20/AAC.00864-15.abstractAnyway...
a) this may be something to consider via your antibiotics, especially once some human trials are done.
b) I was unaware until the other night that Lyme patients were facing a similar 'controversy' as those of us with Crohn's disease. The presence of 'persisters', otherwise called by varying names such as pleomorphic, cell wall deficient, L form bacteria etc.
In Crohn's disease there is a bacteria called MAP (mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis) increasingly implicated in the progression of the disease. Instead of transmission from ticks is comes via transmission from cattle in milk and meats etc. It is thought that, just as in cattle they effect genetically susceptible individuals. When viewed under a microscope at high magnification these bacteria are found in round 'persister' type states far more often in the blood and tissue of Crohn's patients than in controls. It's always in this form versus the traditional bacillus form within cattle.
Anyway - over time it looks like some good will come from understanding these forms, immune reactions to their various stages of lifecycle and reproduction as well as any protein or biofilm protein production, and how to effectively treat them.
In the interim one may want to consider 'pulsing' their antibiotic treatments to allow for the bacteria to first change form and become symptomatic prior to re-starting to kill them off - pulsing thought these stages a few times.
Just thought I would share this as it may be a common front for both diseases.
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PS - 'persister' forms are not a new discovery on any way... There is a LOT of information in very old pre-antibiotic era TB (tuberculosis) research that speaks of these forms. The mistake they made was assuming the antibiotics killed them all off.... Researchers/doctors face the same problem today with multi drug resistant TB as well.
Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 10/3/2015 6:13:48 PM (GMT-6)