Posted 12/7/2023 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
the research that brought it to light in the Lyme community was by Zhang et al - at Johns Hopkins
his group found it one of the most powerful drugs against both log growth phase and stationary growth phase colonies of bartonella when tested in vitro in the lab
this is in contrast to most common antibiotics used for bartonella infections - which tended to have decent activity against log growth phase colonies - but not good activity against stationary growth phase colonies
stationary growth phase is thought to be analogous to persister cells formed inside hosts - and is likely to be a better model for chronic infection - and may explain why current antibiotic regimes for bartonella tend to be very long and the infection is often very hard to clear
MB was originally developed an uses as an antimalarial drug - doses were high and courses short - typically 600mg for a week or two - and was soon replaced by newer drugs - but it likely has some activity against Babesia and theileria species - though how much practical use it is at the low doses often used in lyme / bart is unclear
some LLMDs believe it has activity for lyme ( borrelia ) also - but to my knowledge there are no specific studies on that as yet
it is though to have an antibiofilm activity also - but again - i think there is little direct research on that aspect as yet
be aware the manufacturing process tends to leave heavy metal residues in the product and as a result its very important to use only pharmaceutical grade MB - which will have been purified to reduce these to acceptable levels. MB intended for aquaria, microscopy, agricultural use etc will not be safe for human consumption.