An adult deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, the species that carries Lyme diseasePHOTO BY SCOTT BAUER. (USDA ARS)
A more diverse antibody profile may distinguish people who experience chronic, persistent symptoms of Lyme disease, according to researchers at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical College.
Some people who are bitten by ticks and contract Lyme disease complain that their symptoms—including pain, lethargy, neurological problems and memory loss—persist for months or years after the infection has been treated with antibiotics. Controversy has swirled around such claims because physicians and researchers have been unable to find any trace of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete bacterium that causes Lyme, in these so-called post-Lyme disease patients. But now, Weill Cornell immunologist Armin Alaedini and colleagues have uncovered a molecular signature that may explain why Lyme disease lingers in some, but not others.
Alaedini and his team found a ...
