HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Researchers identify a missing piece of the Lyme disease puzzle.

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/29/2021 6:54 PM (GMT 0)
Article: https://tinyurl.com/3te5tm32

"Jutras' previous research has shown that peptidoglycan in Borrelia burgdorferi lingers in the bodies of Lyme arthritis patients after the bacteria has entered the body. Weeks to months after the initial infection, the peptidoglycan remains, inciting inflammation and pain.

In this newest development, the lab discovered a protein associated with the peptidoglycan of Borrelia burgdorferi that plays an amplifying role in causing inflammation in Lyme arthritis patients by acting as a molecular beacon that antagonizes the patients' immune system.

Using an unbiased proteomics approach and The Mass Spectrometry Research Incubator (VT-MSI) from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute's Core Services, the team identified the protein to be NapA. NapA, which stands for Neutrophil Attracting Protein A, is a remarkable immunomodulatory molecule that is able to recruit immune cells, called neutrophils, toward the inflammatory peptidoglycan."

Post Edited (RainyCloud) : 5/30/2021 3:11:21 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/29/2021 6:56 PM (GMT 0)
This article explains it a bit better: https://www.wvtf.org/post/tick-closer-understanding-lyme-disease#stream/0


The newly identified protein is called “NAP –A” short for Neutrophil Attracting Protein A.

“And that actually, we think, acts as a decoy to allow the bacteria are alive or viable to escape, so that the rest of the bacteria can avoid the immune system initially. And then in later stages of disease and infection and in the case of say, Lyme arthritis, this molecule NAP-A is now pulling immune cells towards the peptidoglycan. And the peptidoglycan has those inflammatory properties and can cause arthritis."
Posted 5/29/2021 8:46 PM (GMT 0)

RainyCloud said...
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-05/vt-ria051121.php

"Jutras' previous research has shown that peptidoglycan in Borrelia burgdorferi lingers in the bodies of Lyme arthritis patients after the bacteria has entered the body. Weeks to months after the initial infection, the peptidoglycan remains, inciting inflammation and pain.

In this newest development, the lab discovered a protein associated with the peptidoglycan of Borrelia burgdorferi that plays an amplifying role in causing inflammation in Lyme arthritis patients by acting as a molecular beacon that antagonizes the patients' immune system.

Using an unbiased proteomics approach and The Mass Spectrometry Research Incubator (VT-MSI) from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute's Core Services, the team identified the protein to be NapA. NapA, which stands for Neutrophil Attracting Protein A, is a remarkable immunomodulatory molecule that is able to recruit immune cells, called neutrophils, toward the inflammatory peptidoglycan."

interesting,does it say anywhere how it can be removed from the body or slowed down, or ? Kind of like a virus that multiplies in your body then lays dormant.
Posted 5/30/2021 3:15 PM (GMT 0)
yep - i think i have read that article before - or other similar ones

if its the one i was thinking of i was a little bit wary as it could be interpreted as support for the PTLDS camp.

however i do think some of it makes a good deal of sense. spirochetes live in tissues with low blood flow and low turnover - like ligaments and joint cartilage - so it make sense that their by products stick around for a good while after they are gone - (if they are truly gone - remember we have no test today that can prove that so it makes interpreting the results a little hard).

that said i think the outer membrane of the spirochetes are peptidoglycans - and there is a know phenomenon where lyme spirochetes shed "blebs" which are little pieces of themselves they leave behind as they move through tissues. these blebs are known to be highly immunogenic - so i think that's what the article is taking about.

i also understand from talks by prominent LLMD's that the rate teh spirochetes shed these blebs - is higher when they are stressed - eg by antibiotics. this makes sense if it is a survival strategy.

it also brings to mind something the leading disulfiram researcher raised about treatment with disulfiram - in that he said it caused spirochetes to "shatter" in to many many tiny pieces - and thsi was in part the reason for some of the extreme herxes and adverse reactions

just a brain dump of related bits i found interesting
Posted 5/30/2021 9:10 PM (GMT 0)
MedicalNerd: I think it's still relatively new, so I don't think there's any known way to slow it down. I'm sure there is though, they just haven't identified it yet.

Garzie: Thank you for the information Garzie, very interesting.

When I first read this last night:

Almost all bacteria, including the Lyme disease-causing bacterium, make a mesh-like bag to protect the inside of their cells. This bag is known as peptidoglycan.

I wasn't paying much attention and thought they meant the biofilm as the mesh-like bag.

But you're right, it's the outer layer of the spirochetes.

It's crazy how these things have all these layers to protect themselves.
Posted 5/31/2021 10:25 AM (GMT 0)
its a fascinating organism - so interesting and unusual in so many ways - for instance it has the largest genome of any bacteria so far sequenced - which is a clue to its many survival strategies.

its what enables it to change the proteins in this outer layer of its membrane frequently - which gives it this ability to keep outfoxing our immune systems

and this is in turn the reason that we can be IgM positive years after initial infection - or then negative and then positive again
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply