Scientists isolate slow-growing variant Lyme bacteria forms that caused severe symptoms, resisted standard single-antibiotic Lyme treatment in the mouse model

Date:

April 23, 2019

Source:

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Summary:

A new study found that a slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria caused severe symptoms in a mouse model. The slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria, according to the researchers, may account for the persistent symptoms seen in ten to twenty percent of Lyme patients that are not cured by the current Lyme antibiotic treatment.

FULL STORY

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that a slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria caused severe symptoms in a mouse model. The slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria, according to the researchers, may account for the persistent symptoms seen in ten to twenty percent of Lyme patients that are not cured by the current Lyme antibiotic treatment.

The study, published March 28 in Discovery Medicine, also found that these "persister" Lyme bacteria were resistant to standard single-antibiotic Lyme treatments currently used to treat Lyme patients, while a three-antibiotic cocktail eradicated the Lyme bacteria in the mouse model.

SNIP