All Posts Tagged With: "spirochete"

Link: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015830

Excerpt:

The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi dramatically upregulates
outer surface protein C (OspC) in response to fresh bloodmeal during
transmission from the tick vector to a mammal, and abundantly produces the
antigen during early infection. As OspC is an effective immune target, to
evade the immune system B. burgdorferi downregulates the antigen once the
anti-OspC humoral response has developed, suggesting an important role for
OspC during early infection.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In this study, a borrelial mutant producing an OspC antigen with a
5-amino-acid deletion was generated. The deletion didn’t significantly
increase the 50% infectious dose or reduce the tissue bacterial burden
during infection of the murine host, indicating that the truncated OspC can
effectively protect B. burgdorferi against innate elimination. 
However, the deletion greatly impaired the ability of B. burgdorferi to
disseminate to remote tissues after inoculation into mice.

Conclusions/Significance

The study indicates that OspC plays an important role in dissemination of B.
burgdorferi during mammalian infection.

AAAS article on most recent XMRV study

 In their publication “Science Now.”  Hedging their bets?

Linda’s comment: So as I see it, it is just another pathogen that chronically ill people need to deal with….Is it really a virus, parasite, bacterial?????  Don’t feed it, get on the FIGHT program and stop it in its track. All of these critters like the spirochete love feeding off GMO, toxic chemical sweeteners, heavy metals, etc., etc., etc.,  This gives them their energies/food supply to wreak havoc on our bodies.  Healthy people have an advantage over chronic illness.  The FIGHT program is one of the best prevention programs I have ever experienced.

Listen up as the XMRV is just one of many new things that are attacking our bodies.  Scientists are having a difficult time keeping up with all the new tragedies attacking our bodies because of our toxic environments.

Excerpt:

A theory linking chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to an infectious mouse virus known as XMRV has taken a second major hit. First proposed last October in Science, the virus-CFS connection was quickly challenged by a British group. Now a second team of British virologists reports that, after examining tissue from 170 CFS patients, they have failed to find evidence of XMRV.

Patients with CFS often report that their condition–a mix of symptoms including unexplained pains and excessive fatigue–began after an otherwise normal viral infection. And scientists in the past have preliminarily linked CFS to a few viruses. However, those links have fallen apart under scrutiny, and without a firm biological cause for CFS, victims continue to face skepticism that their condition is a “real” disease.

Lyme disease (borreliosis) is a systemic illness resulting from infection
with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. It is transmitted to humans by the
bites of infected ticks belonging to several species of the genus Ixodes.
After the bacteria enter the body via the dermis, most patients develop the
early, localised form of Lyme disease, which is characterised by erythema
migrans and influenza-like symptoms. This disease may also affect the heart,
nervous system and joints. The neurological findings of this disease may
include peripheral and central nervous system signs.
A 21-year-old woman attended a family medicine outpatient clinic complaining
of unexplained pain and muscle power loss in her lower extremities. The
problem had started in her right leg 3 months earlier and worsened in the
last week. She had a neurology consultation and was hospitalised. Her
neurological examination revealed bilateral facial paralysis and sensory
impairment. Immunoglobulin M antibody to B. burgdorferi was positive on
Western blotting in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid. The patient was
diagnosed with subacute neuroborreliosis and treated.

Acta Neurol Belg. 2009 Dec;109(4):326-9.

Koc F, Bozdemir H, Pekoz T, Aksu HS, Ozcan S, Kurdak H.

Department of Neurology, Cukurova University School of Medicine, Adana,
Turkey.
koc.filiz@gmail.com

Full article:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/b8x4742136623114/

Excerpt:

Abstract Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) represents the third most common cause of heart failure and the most frequent cause of heart transplantation. Infectious, mostly viral, and autoimmune mechanisms, together with genetic abnormalities, have been reported as three major causes of DCM. We hypothesized that Lyme disease (LD), caused by spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), might be an important cause of new-onset unexplained DCM in patients living in a highly endemic area for LD such as the Czech Republic.

Lyme Disease, caused by the spirochete Borrellia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Clinically, it primarily affects the skin, joints, nervous system, and heart. Lyme carditis occurs in 4%-10% of adults with Lyme disease. Transient variable-level atrioventricular blocks, occurring in 77% of adults with Lyme carditis, are the most common cardiac manifestation. Up to 50% of Lyme carditis patients may develop complete heart block. The incidence of Lyme carditis in the pediatric population is not well established. We present a pediatric patient with a transient asymptomatic complete heart block resulting from Lyme carditis, an under-recognized complication of Lyme disease in the pediatric population. ^Continued

Lyme Disease is transmitted by an arthropod, the Ixodes dammini tick. The spirochete causing the disease is the Borrelia burgdorferi.

Over the past nine years, we have treated over three hundred children for Lyme Disease in the hospital because they had significant neurologic manifestations of Lyme Disease or, in the minority of cases, an arthritis necessitating hospitalization for intravenous antibiotics. Continued