Lyme Disease Testing by Larger Commercial Laboratories in the United States.  Alison F. Hinckley, Neeta P. Connally, James I. Meek, Barbara J. Johnson, Melissa M. Kemperman, Katherine A. Feldman, Jeffifer L. White, and Paul S. Mead. CID 2014:59 (1 September) • Hinckley et al. Read entire article

 

Serum inflammatory mediators as markers of human Lyme Disease activity. Soloski MJ, Crowder LA, Lahey LJ. Wagner CA, Robinson WH, Aucott JN. PLOS ONE. 2014;9(4). The levels of serum chemokines and the levels of expression of their respective chemokine receptors on T cell subsets may prove to be informative biomarkers for Lyme Disease, related to specific disease manifestations. Read entire article

 

Health care costs, utilization and patterns of care following Lyme Disease. Adrion ER, Aucott JN, Lemke KW, Weiner JP. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(2). Healthcare claims study shows that Lyme Disease costs $1.3 billion each year to treat. Read entire article

 

Characteristics of seroconversion and implications for diagnosis of post-treatment Lyme Disease syndrome: acute and convalescent serology among a prospective cohort of early Lyme Disease patients. Rebman AW, Crowder LA, Kirkpatrick A, Aucott JN. Clin Rheum. 2014;34(3). The lack of seroconversion in a subset of patients highlights the limitations of using serology alone in identifying early Lyme Disease. Read abstract 

 

Diagnostic challenges of early Lyme Disease: lessons from a community case series. Aucott J, Morrison C, Munoz B, Rowe PC, Schwarzwalder A, West SK. BMC Infect Dis. 9;2009. Describes the variability in Lyme Disease presenting symptoms and difficulty with its diagnosis in community-based medical practice, in particular early diagnosis. Read entire article

 

T-cell immunophenotyping in early Lyme Disease. Crowder LA, Aucott JN, Soloski M. Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center. This data indicates that during early acute Lyme disease, the evoked T cell mediated immune response is shifted in favor of the Th2/Tc2 effector T cells. See Poster

 

The loss and gain of marginal zone and peritoneal B cells is different in response to relapsing fever and Lyme Disease Borrelia. Malkiel S, Kuhlow CJ, Mena P, Benach JL. J Immunol.. 2009;(1). These data demonstrate that different Borrelia can activate the same B cell subsets in distinct ways and they each elicit a complex interplay of MZ and multiple peritoneal B cell subsets in the early response to infection. Read entire article

 

Drug combinations against Borrelia burgdorferi persisters in vitro: eradication achieved by using daptomycin, cefoperazone and doxycycline.  Feng J, Auwaerter PG, Zhang Y. PLOS One. 2015;10(3). Although most Lyme Disease patients can be cured with the antibiotics doxycycline or amoxicillin using 2-4 week treatment durations, some patients suffer from persistent arthritis or post-treatment Lyme Disease syndrome. Read entire article

 

Development of a metabolic biosignature for detection of early lyme disease.  Molins CR, Ashton LV, Wormser GP, Hess AM, Delorey MJ, et al. Clin Infect Dis. 2015;60(12). The data provide proof-of-concept that metabolic profiling for early Lyme Disease can achieve significantly greater (P<.0001) diagnostic sensitivity than current 2-tier serology, while retaining high specificity. Read entire article