Newly released study on Disulfiram for Lyme and Babesia

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/8/2/72

Looks promising. Study is about 3 patients using disulfiram as a single agent after "failing" multiple conventional antibiotic regimens for lyme and babesia. 2 patients achieve a complete and long lasting remission, while 1 is currently taking a second round of disulfiram due to relapsing (He used a lower dose than the other 2 patients).

ok but...how? why? this drug isn't even an anti biotic?

looks like there is a larger study in the works right nwo

Somebody said...
Scientists recently discovered that disulfiram is effective in the lab setting at killing the microbes that cause Lyme disease. Disulfiram is more commonly known as "Antabuse". It is an FDA-approved compound used to assist alcoholics in resisting alcohol consumption. Most remarkable is that disulfiram was effective at killing not only the actively replicating Lyme bacteria (ie, the ones that are typically killed by several antibiotics) but also the relatively dormant or quiescent Lyme bacteria (these are called "drug-tolerant persisters") - these latter spirochetes are the ones that may account for the development of chronic Lyme disease symptoms.


Our initial pilot study will focus on patients with persistent symptoms despite having received the standard antibiotic therapy (or more) for Lyme disease. Because no one has yet studied the safety of disulfiram for patients with a history of Lyme disease and because the investigators do not know the optimal treatment duration for disulfiram, our initial effort will have the primary aims of assessing safety and determining whether a longer course of daily treatment is more effective than a shorter course of daily treatment.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03891667

Lapis_29 said...
ok but...how? why? this drug isn't even an anti biotic?

It's been known that disulfiram can wake up dormant bacteria and viral cells which are basically untouchable to any standard medication.

But like the study you posted, it is also antibacterial. The reason why it would probably never be listed under an antibiotic is because it was used originally for alcoholism.

Here's a side note from wikipedia how disulfiram was first being used to treat parasites...

Wikipedia said...
In the early 1940s it had been tested as a treatment for scabies, a parasitic skin infection, as well as intestinal worms.

Around that time, during the German occupation of Denmark, Erik Jacobsen and Jens Hald at the Danish drug company Medicinalco picked up on that research and began exploring the use of disulfiram to treat intestinal parasites.

Lapis_29 said...


looks like there is a larger study in the works right nwo

Yeah it's been well known for last few years John Hopkins and Doctors like Kim Lewis have been studying Disulfiram to wake up dormant cells and kill persister cells. I think someone said they are even forming a stronger compound from the drug, can't remember?

Question is how many other hospital and universities are also doing studies with this drug against Lyme, maybe the word is out? Something going on behind the scenes more than we know about.

I haven't even heard of these hospitals working to treat chronic lyme, but hey maybe someone else has...?

Suite 1B, Pawling, NY
Sharon Hospital, Sharon, CT
Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, NY

It sure would be nice to get a surprise soon for the lyme community, many of us have been waiting.

Post Edited (Charlie55) : 6/1/2019 11:53:09 PM (GMT-6)

Disulfiram's chemical structure is basically sulfur and nitrogen. There isn't much more to it structurally. But what it may do to piroplasm replication was my interest.

My thought processes may be different than most, but they are what they are. Looking at my genes, I saw that I have a G6PD mutation. Investigating that found that epigenetic shifts to that gene showed resistance to malaria or in my mind, other similar piroplasms like babesia. Further study into G6PD found this quote:

"Furthermore, an ALDH2 inactivating mutation (termed ALDH2*2) is the most common single point mutation in humans, and epidemiological studies suggest a correlation between this inactivating mutation and increased propensity for common human pathologies."

To me, this was huge and I thought this was very interesting as ALDH and ALDH2 are detoxifying enzymes and what are blocked by disulfiram (which is ALDH2*2). I know I do not metabolize alcohol well and could my body have mutated these enzymes to reduce pathogen growth like G6PD? I thought these quotes may be helpful to some:

" Reactive aldehydes are readily formed during oxidative stress as products of lipid peroxidation."

"Throughout their lifespan, every organism is exposed to numerous damaging agents. Some are formed endogenously, while others accumulate following ingestion of food or exposure to environmental pollutants. There are three sets of active responses to these damaging events. The first set provides a shield from these damaging agents by quickly detoxifying them through enzymatic reactions or through sequestration of these agents (e.g., phase I and II detoxifying enzymes). The second set of responses involves a damage repair system (e.g., proteolysis, DNA repair), and the third set activates programmed cell death (e.g., apoptosis), thus preventing propagation of the injury. It is not surprising that many diseases are associated with a failure of one or more of these three sets of protective mechanisms."

Looking at some of the 19 ALDH human isozymes, it is interesting that ALDH3B1 is linked to schizophrenia. There are over 50 published studies that link schizophrenia to infections by protozoans. Other isozymes like ALDH18A1 are directly related to hyperammonemia, neurodegeneration, and hyporprolinemia (which many Lyme people have.) Over expression of ALDH2*2 can lead to "Accelerated aging, shortened lifespan, neuronal loss and impaired cognitive function, smaller body size, increased 4-HNE adducts; mitochondria stress, metabolic remodeling, tolerance to ischemia-reperfusion stress; hypersensitivity of osteoblasts to acetaldehyde, kyphosis, and osteoporosis." Many Lyme patients suffer from these ailments.

Do protozoans alter ALDH2*2 or Alda, an ALDH activator? That is my theory. I feel the Disulfiram is lowering protozoan levels by altering their reproductive cycle. In my mind, it is not babesia but rather an unknown parasite. When looking at the phenylalanine/aldehyde issues that many Lyme patients have, it all just seems to fit together.

A warning, Disulfiram can cause peripheral neuropathy and can increase cancer risks. Many Lyme patients already have that. Low and slow because they just can't detox fast enough.

Sheekster said...
Dosages in the study as follows:
case 1: 500mg per day for 90 days
Case 2: 500mg per day for 6 weeks. Quit early due to psychiatric event due to potential drug to drug interaction. Remains well one year out despite stopping early.
Case 3: 125mg every other day ramping up to 500mg for a total period of 4.5 months. Relapsed and tested positive for Lyme and babesia. Currently in a second round of disulfiram starting at 125mg every other day ramping up to 750mg per day for 90 days.

“Disulfiram was first utilized as an industrial chemical for the vulcanization of rubber [76,77].”

The first guy had some psychiatric issues as well but didn't stop. He did go to the hospital though. Sounds hopeful but the psych stuff seems pretty likely. I wonder if there's a way to minimize that? I can't imagine a few months of one drug - how awesome would that be.

Sheekster said...
It'd be pretty awesome!

A little birdie told me that disulfiram is available for purchase on ADC if anyone wants to try it out

Dang it - ADC doesn’t ship to Canada.

FYI - it’s under Dizone

Aww - thanks Sheekster .


You go first... lol

Georgia Hunter said...
Disulfiram's chemical structure is basically sulfur and nitrogen. There isn't much more to it structurally. But what it may do to piroplasm replication was my interest.

No telling if they could possibly add something to the drug to make it more effective, like copper, maybe even a biofilm buster of some sort, all in one pill. Copper has shown to make Disulfiram a lot more effective in treating persister cell forms of tuberculosis, causing a synergistic effect, look it up...

"Disulfiram and Copper Ions Kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Synergistic Manner"
https://aac.asm.org/content/59/8/4835

I also wonder what the outcome would be if someone were to take the Curza Drug and Disulfiram together.

k07 said...


The first guy had some psychiatric issues as well but didn't stop. He did go to the hospital though. Sounds hopeful but the psych stuff seems pretty likely. I wonder if there's a way to minimize that? I can't imagine a few months of one drug - how awesome would that be.

Yes there are some serious psychiatric issues, just like there can be with quinine drugs or coartem. Like the study that showed an alcoholic who cured her full blown cancer, but ended up committing suicide. When I tried it for a few months, I did get some suicidal thoughts/depression. Then I just come to my senses it's just the drug.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/old-drug-alcoholism-finds-new-life-cancer-treatment

ScienceMag.org said...


By age 38, the patient’s breast cancer had spread to her bones, a typically fatal turn of events. She became an alcoholic, and her doctors stopped all cancer treatment, instead giving her a drug to discourage her drinking. She died 10 years later, after an inebriated fall from a window. But an autopsy revealed something unexpected: Her bone tumors had melted away, leaving only a few cancer cells in her marrow.

Sheekster said...
It'd be pretty awesome!

A little birdie told me that disulfiram is available for purchase on ADC if anyone wants to try it out

Yeah that's where I picked mine up. Disulfiram really causes a lot of herxing for me in the first month, but eventually I became super lethargic and fatigued anytime I got on this drug when I took it afterwards. Hard to know if the fatigue was just more herxing or what... But for the most part, the herxing wore off and seem to stop working like it did in the first month. I have a friend who has also taken it, same thing happened to her, the effectiveness just wore off. Or so it seemed, because both of us never took it for 6 - 23 months like these patients did. And personally I'd never try to take a drug like Disulfiram without some Doctor supervision knowing the side effects and depression. Disulfiram can also be a little harsh on the liver too because of the strong half life and how it builds up in the system... The half life is probably one of the factors that makes the drug so effective for digging out dormant persister cells and killing them.

k07 said...
Dosages in the study as follows:
case 1: 500mg per day for 90 days
Case 2: 500mg per day for 6 weeks. Quit early due to psychiatric event due to potential drug to drug interaction. Remains well one year out despite stopping early.
Case 3: 125mg every other day ramping up to 500mg for a total period of 4.5 months. Relapsed and tested positive for Lyme and babesia. Currently in a second round of disulfiram starting at 125mg every other day ramping up to 750mg per day for 90 days.

“Disulfiram was first utilized as an industrial chemical for the vulcanization of rubber [76,77].”

Holy cow, 500mg for 90s days. THATS A LOT, I tried doing 500mg for a couple of weeks, the psychiatric problems got so bad I had to quit!

The half life on disulfiram is brutal, it's gotta be great for killing borrelia amongst other coinfections deep in the tissue, but it makes me wonder if the Doctors had patients on other drugs or supplements to help tolerate disulfiram... But hey, everyone's different, just because I couldn't tolerate the drug, doesn't mean others cant.

My thyroid is so damaged after 8 years of treating this disease, along with steeling dealing with babesia, that's what could be causing my fatigue.

Post Edited (Charlie55) : 6/3/2019 2:38:16 PM (GMT-6)

There's another thread on disulfiram here:

https://www.facebook.com/lymebook/posts/1002252386646807

One of the comments there was interesting

Somebody said...
I became seriously fatigued at day 12 on 500mg whilst many of my lyme symptoms had improved. My Doctor thought it was too high a dose and a Disulfiram effect. I stopped and it took two weeks to return to pre Disulfiram state. I then reintroduced slowly taking half a tablet ie 250mg and finding taking that twice a week was enough to give me benefits without scrambling my head, brain fog and fatigue. When I stopped taking them some months later it was four months before Lyme symptoms became problematic again.

That is almost exactly my experience with sodium valproate, so I suspect the fatigue is actually herx rather than a direct effect of the disulfiram.

Charlie55 said...
Yes I think you're completely right Quin! Again I became so fatigued and I had to come off the drug, I didn't know what was going on. Not having any Doctor supervision, doing bloodwork, I just decided to stop taking the drug. Along with the psychological depressive thoughts, but honestly, some of those thoughts could have been just from being bed bound. I mean I went basically from running, lifting weights, to just bed bound day in and day out.

The person reported that they were fine for 12 days, and then got a herx. I got the same effect from depakote, it took about two weeks. The elimination half-life of these drugs is long, but it's not quite that long, so I suspect this has to do with the breaking down of biofilms or cysts. or it really just takes that long for enough ions to diffuse through the cell membrane to kill the bacteria.

Charlie55 said...
I sure hope this study gains some traction in the media and medical community, so others can finally seek treatment they need... This new study should finally be the smoking gun for chronic lyme disease being a chronic infection.

I got a positive PCR test after more than a year of antibiotics, including clarithromycin, amoxicillin, and rifampin. These antibiotics had not completely gotten rid of the infection.

Charlie55 said...
But I wonder if it will just get buried like Dr. H's study on Dapsone. Seeing that 2 out of 3 patients reached remission, I suspect disulfiram is going to be a lot more succesful drug than dapsone.

Do you have a link to the dapsone study?

Oh nice I was just going to post about this. They mentioned this in my Lyme group. Has anyone done it? Sorry if I missed it in someone's comments. I'm gonna bring this up with my doctor.

Charlie55 said...
Yeah... Dr. Horrowitz's study, I think he had a newer one coming out taking Dapsone in higher dosages too... Disulfiram makes that study look pretty important if 2 out of 3 patients are reaching remisison with Disulfiram. But I guess all of these have been stepping stones for the treatment of persister cells.

I suspect there are several drugs that could successfully eliminate borrelia burgdorferi if taken long enough. The problem is the herx. I've been taking valproate + minocycline + cefdinir for more than a month and I really need to take a break from it. My muscles ache, my pee smells bad, I'm getting allergies, and it's messing with my sleep. I've thought about trying disulfiram, but what I'm reading here is that the herx is just as bad.

My other concern is bartonella. The main reason I'm taking minocycline is that the bart was resistant to almost everything else. Bartonella is more metabolically active than borrelia and seems to have much better efflux pumps, and if the mechanism of action of disulfiram really is that it acts as a copper ionophore, there's a pretty good chance the bartonella bacteria will just spit out the copper.