Possible Source of Post-Lyme Complications Is Revealed

Tagging some smart people, in case they've missed this. I'm curious whether my excitement about this study is justified or not.

@Jonathan Edwards @Simon M @strategist @Snow Leopard @Hutan @Pyrrhus

 

This is an assumption.

I think what they have demonstrated suggests Bb PG can cause an antibody response that is peculiar to Bb. I'm ok with that. But they have not demonstrated this happens naturally post-infection. There is no reason to conclude this is debris or nonviable spirochetal blebs. This can be interpreted as happening during persistent infection.

It would be little different from isolating OpsA for vaccine purposes and concluding this is the only protein that causes a problem.

They may have it right, but they may not.

This is Steere's Moby Dick. This has been the refrain for 35 years, and he's yet to nail it down - "it" being proof that Lyme arthritis always happens in the absence of infection.

To me it indicates little more than part of Bb has been shown to cause Lyme arthritis. Gee. We knew Bb was causing that already.

 

yes (but I did use the term suggesting...).

It's certainly possible that this is only part of the mechanism of what is causing the problem. I suppose, if these findings are confirmed, that the next step would be to try to treat the B. burgdorferi PG and see what happens with the symptoms.

I don't want to rule out the possibility that the Lyme bacterium persists in the body without us being able to 'see' it. I just don't understand why so many in the Chronic Lyme community favor that theory over other ones, like the one presented in this paper. Don't see what the difference is. I would think the logical position for advocates is to remain agnostic until more is known why patients remain ill after an acute Lyme infection.

 

The reason the cause matters is that proper treatment is predicated on the correct cause.

You are correct, though - they may have it right. They just haven proven it yet. They know that, too.

 

History.

 

It is certainly curious, the next step is to see if the results are maintained in a prospective study over time.