Focus on Lyme Conference Update
Highlights from the Focus on Lyme conference 2018.
Tammy Crawford, executive director and founder of Focus On Lyme, has once again produced a superb scientific conference and patient forum in Phoenix Arizona on April 26-27. Dr. Stram had the honor of presenting, among some of the top research scientists in the field, on the clinical importance of detoxification to enhance immune functioning during treatment. Here are highlights from the conference that reinforce the evidence for chronic, persistent Lyme disease in animal and non-human primate studies:
Nicole Baumgarth, DVM, Ph.D, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and the Center for Comparative Medicine, University of California.
Baumgarth found, in her studies using mice, that B. burgdorferi targets lymph nodes early after infection and induces a strong initial antibody response (IgM) but cannot clear the infection with IgG antibody responses, which are short-lived). Furthermore, influenza immunization administered at the time of Borrelia infection, also failed to induce a robust antibody response. Collectively, her studies show that B. burgdorferi-infection results in targeted and temporary immunosuppression of the host and bring new insight into the mechanisms underlying the failure to develop long term immunity.
Monica Embers, PhD, Tulane National Primate Research CenterEmbers found that after treatment with 28 days of doxycycline, 4 months post B. burgdorferi inoculation, rehesus macaques showed signs of infection, and variation in antibody responses. In addition, there was evidence of persistent, intact, metabolically active B. Burgdorferi after antibiotic treatment. Furthermore, pathology findings in macaques treated with doxycycline for 28 days after 12-13 months of inoculation, showed intact spirochetes in the brains of 2 out of 10 macaques, and 1 out of 10 of the hearts. These finds support the notion of chronic Lyme disease as an infectious etiology.
