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 What’s more, Lyme disease is only one of a whole host of diseases that are essentially competing for researchers’
attention — and dollars, says Dr. Kotsoris. “Lyme disease is just one of many serious diseases, and unfortunately, many of them
get a lot more attention from the media — the research facilities — and the pharmaceutical companies — than Lyme does.”
In response, Time for Lyme, Inc. has made substantial donations to several institutions and individuals, all of whom are conducting important research in a few different areas:
Better Antibiotics
Dr. Benjamin J. Luft, the Edmond Pellegrino Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, is on a quest to find better antibiotic therapies for Lyme disease. We know that the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria can remain viable in animals even after treatment with penicillin, tetracycline and macrolide antibiotics. Dr. Luft and his colleagues have discovered that the microbes possess something known as efflux pumps in their cell membranes, which help eliminate antibiotics and other toxins from the bacteria’s body and thus help them survive. Research is underway to determine the mechanisms of resistance and whether two already approved antibiotics could block these efflux pumps and allow antibiotics to build up inside the bacteria, thus speeding their death.
Chronicling Chronic Lyme
Dr. John Aucott, Principal Investigator for the Lyme Disease Research Foundation of Maryland, is conducting a longitudinal study in collaboration with scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The clinical research team will examine the course of infection with the Lyme organism and the resulting illness from the initial rash to the chronic persistent stage. His objectives: to measure risk factors, symptom pattern and severity, and immune system response over time in patients with chronic Lyme symptoms.
Treating Persistent Symptoms
Dr. Armin Alaedini, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, is conducting research to determine the relevance and role of the body’s immune system in chronic Lyme. To better understand how to help patients whose symptoms persist after antibiotic treatment, Dr. Alaedini is analyzing blood and spinal fluid for biomarkers that might correlate with various symptoms of the disease.
Research like this is not just important, says Dr. Kotsoris: It’s absolutely essential. “We need to keep pushing for answers so that we can minimize and even eliminate these infections and their devastating effects,” she says. |
