Lyme’s

BACKGROUND: People with occupations that require them to spend time working outdoors in suitable tick habitats are predicted to be at an increased risk for tick-borne diseases (TBDs). However, few studies have assessed the risks of outdoor employees in the United States. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey to collect data on exposure to ticks and TBD infections among U.S. Forest Service employees in a high TBD incidence region of northern Wisconsin, and to examine employee knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) regarding TBDs to help guide future education and prevention programs...

Members of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) complex are etiological agents of Lyme disease (LD), and Borrelia miyamotoi is one of the relapsing fever Borrelia (RFB). Despite the serological evidence of LD in Malaysia, there has been no report from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Thus, this study aimed to detect and characterize Borrelia in rodents and Ixodes ticks from primary forests and an oil palm (OP) plantation in Sarawak. Borrelia yangtzensis (a member of the Bbsl complex) was detected in 43.8% (14/32) of Ixodes granulatus ; most of the positive ticks were from the OP plantation (13/14)...

Borrelia miyamotoi is a tick-borne spirochete of the relapsing fever borrelia group and an emerging pathogen of public health significance. The genomes of relapsing fever borreliae and Lyme disease borreliae consist of multiple linear and circular plasmids in addition to the chromosome. Previous work with B. burgdorferi sensu lato found diminished infectivity upon continuous in vitro culture passage that was attributable to plasmid loss. The effect of long-term culture passage on B. miyamotoi is not known. We generated a series of plasmid-specific primer sets and developed a multiplex PCR assay to detect the 14 known plasmids of B...

The tick Ixodes ricinus is the vector of various pathogens, including Chlamydiales bacteria, potentially causing respiratory infections. In this study, we modelled the spatial distribution of I. ricinus and associated Chlamydiales over Switzerland from 2009 to 2019. We used a total of 2293 ticks and 186 Chlamydiales occurrences provided by a Swiss Army field campaign, a collaborative smartphone application and a prospective campaign. For each tick location, we retrieved from Swiss federal datasets the environmental factors reflecting the topography, climate and land cover...

Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease pathogen causes persistent infection by evading the host immune response. Differential expression of the surface-exposed lipoprotein VlsE that undergoes antigenic variation is a key immune evasion strategy employed by B. burgdorferi. Most studies focused on the mechanism of VlsE antigen variation, but little is known about VlsE regulation and factor(s) that regulates differential vlsE expression. In this study, we investigated BB0025, a putative YebC family transcriptional regulator (and hence designated BB0025 as YebC of B...

Macrophages play a key role in the inflammatory response in Lyme arthritis (LA) and could be a target for diagnosing and monitoring active Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato ( Bb ) infection. Therefore, we evaluated the potential of macrophage imaging using 64 Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT for detection of Bb activity in a murine model of LA. LA was established in C3H/HeNRj mice infected with Bb B31 strain ML23 pBBE22 luc . Bioluminescence imaging was performed to detect migration of spirochetes and inflammatory phagocytes to the joints...

BACKGROUND: Borrelia bavariensis is one of the agents of Lyme Borreliosis (or Lyme disease) in Eurasia. The genome of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species complex, that includes B. bavariensis, is known to be very complex and fragmented making the assembly of whole genomes with next-generation sequencing data a challenge. RESULTS: We present a genome reconstruction for 33 B. bavariensis isolates from Eurasia based on long-read (Pacific Bioscience, for three isolates) and short-read (Illumina) data...

BACKGROUND: The incidence of Lyme disease (LD) in North America has increased substantially in the past two decades. Concomitant with the increased incidence of infection has been an enhancement in the recognition of LD complications. Here, we report a case of Lyme carditis complicated by heart block in a pediatric patient admitted to our children's hospital. What is unique about this case is that the complaint of chest palpitations is an infrequent presentation of LD, and what it adds to the scientific literature is an improved understanding of LD in the pediatric population...

Ticks and canine sera were submitted by veterinarians from Prince Edward Island over a 15-month period spanning 3 tick seasons. The objective of the study was to determine the infection prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi , a causative agent of Lyme disease, in the province's ticks and the seroprevalence in its dogs. It was found that 97.8% ( n = 368) of ticks submitted were Ixodes scapularis , a species capable of transmitting Borrelia burgdorferi; 10.3% of these ticks [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.6% to 17...

The peritrophic matrix (PM) is an acellular membrane that covers the gut epithelium in arthropods and physically separates it from the lumen. The structure is thought to play an important role in tick biology. The PM is also known to impact the persistence of tick-borne pathogens like Borrelia burgdorferi, although limited information is available about its molecular constituents or their biological significance. Herein, we characterise a novel PM-associated gut protein in Ixodes scapularis ticks, annotated as Peritrophic Membrane Chitin Binding Protein (PM_CBP), for its role in the integrity and function of the matrix...

Methionine aminopeptidases (MetAPs), which remove the initiator methionine from nascent peptides, are essential in all organisms and considered to be a valuable targets for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer, malaria, and bacterial infections. However, MetAPs have not been reported in hard ticks (family Ixodidae), and their bioinformatics characterisation in tick's genome sequences is limited. In this study, we cloned, identified, and characterised a novel MetAP from Ixodes persulcatus, a vector for pathogens causing Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis...

BACKGROUND: Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is a spirochetal disease. Lyme disease-related ocular findings may also provide important clues. Ocular involvement is most commonly seen as uveitis, chorioretinitis, conjunctivitis, keratitis, episcleritis, papillitis, panuveitis, ischemic optic neuropathy, papilledema, and retinal vasculitis. CASE: A 27-year-old male patient was admitted with a history of fatigue, malaise, and sudden loss of vision in his left eye for 3 days...

Over the past four decades, Lyme disease has remained a virulent and pervasive illness, persisting throughout North America and many other regions of the world. Recent increases in illness in many countries has sparked a renewed interest in improved Lyme diagnostics. While current standards of diagnosis are acceptable for the late stages of the disease, it remains difficult to accurately diagnose early forms of the illness. In addition, current diagnostic methods tend to be relatively expensive and require a large degree of laboratory-based analysis...

Introduction: Horses ( Equus caballus) are susceptible to tick-borne diseases. Two of them, Lyme borreliosis due to Borrelia burgdorferi and granulocytic anaplasmosis due to Anaplasma phagocytophilum were investigated in Algerian horses. The diseases have been less extensively studied in horses and results pertinent to Algeria have not been published. Material and Methods: Blood samples were obtained from 128 horses. IgG antibodies directed against Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi were detected by an indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and ELISA...

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a novel highly contagious infectious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV2. The virus affects the human respiratory and other systems, and presents mostly as acute respiratory syndrome with fever, fatigue, dry cough, myalgia and dyspnea. The clinical manifestations vary from no symptoms to multiple organ failure. Majority of patients fully recover. Several postinfectious presumably autoimmune complications of COVID-19 affecting the brain or peripheral large nerve fibers have been reported...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the conditions behind the symptoms in patients with suspected Lyme borreliosis (LB) who were referred to an infectious diseases clinic. METHODS: In this retrospective, population-based study, we collected data from the medical records of all patients referred for infectious disease consultations in 2013 because of presumed LB from a population of 1.58 million. The patients were classified according to the certainty of LB based on their symptoms, signs, and laboratory results...

BACKGROUND: Etiologies for Bell's palsy include herpes viruses and Lyme disease, with highest incidence in the colder and warmer months, respectively. In New Jersey, a Lyme-endemic area, the months with the most Lyme disease (80% of cases) are May through October ("Lyme months"). OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to determine whether positive tests for Lyme disease and visits are greater in the Lyme months than the rest of the year for patients with Bell's palsy in New Jersey emergency departments (EDs)...

BACKGROUND: Post-treatment Lyme disease symptoms/syndrome (PTLDS) occurs in approximately 10% of Lyme disease patients following antibiotic treatment. Biomarkers or specific clinical symptoms to identify PTLDS patients do not currently exist and the PTLDS classification is based on the report of persistent, subjective symptoms for ≥ 6 months following antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease. METHODS: Untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry metabolomics was used to determine longitudinal metabolic responses and biosignatures in PTLDS and clinically cured non-PTLDS Lyme patients...

Context: Persistent fatigue, pain, and neurocognitive impairment are common in individuals following treatment for Lyme borreliosis (LB). Poor sleep, depression, visual disturbance, and sensory neuropathies have also been reported. The cause of these symptoms is unclear, and widely accepted effective treatment strategies are lacking. Objectives: To identify symptom clusters in people with persistent symptoms previously treated for LB and to examine the relationship between symptom severity and perceived disability...

While investigating patients with gastrointestinal (GI) and/or hepatic symptoms, tickborne diseases are only rarely considered to be the cause. However, the Czech Republic is an endemic region for several of tickborne diseases and, therefore, they should be a part of differential diagnosis of GI symptoms of unknown origin. This article describes GI and hepatic symptoms of several tickborne diseases - Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, Rocky mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, tickborne relapsing fever, Q fever and babesiosis...