LDA NEWS & UPDATES
December 2021
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LDA has released for public on LDA’s YouTube Channel,
lectures from the LDA-
Columbia 21 st Annual Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases
2021 CME Conference.
See lectures by Drs. Aucott,
Baranchuk, Breitschwerdt,
Brissette, Ericson, Fallon,
Lewis, Liegner, and Maggi.
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Topics include Lyme & COVID-19; cardiac Lyme; Barrtonella;
Borrelia in dura matter; suicide &
Lyme; Lyme therapies; disulfiram
treatment for LD; PCR detection
of Borrelia, Babesia & Bartonella;
B. henselae in melanoma.
LDA Pres. Smith’s opening
conference video provides info
about LDA-supported research &
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NOTE: Some videos are not available due to ongoing research on the topic.
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LDA has been working for Lyme and tick-borne diseases (TBD) for 31 years- patients and family members of patients driving the programs. We care about you, family, friends & pets, who are at risk for Lyme and other TBD.
Ninety-six percent of funds go directly to programs. To keep admin costs down, we have no employees & utilize consultants to provide expertise as needed. Guidestar has designated LDA at its highest transparency level, Platinum. CFC designates LDA a national charity for 16 yrs.--in Combined Federal Campaign lists-federal employees’ workplace giving. Over time, LDA has:
- Provided 21 LDA-Columbia Continuing Medical Education Lyme/TBD conferences.
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Helped write and pass legislation. Language in House Approps. report and provided impetus and language for bill introduced by C. Smith into House, CHILD Act 2021, “To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”
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Awarded 155+ education grants to other Lyme organizations & institutions; 107 Lyme conference scholarship grants.
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Partnered to establish endowed Columbia Lyme/Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center. Read more.
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Please donate to LDA today. Help us provide a healthier New Year for people everywhere. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Thank You & Happy, Healthy 2022.
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In a newly published article in the IOS Press, researchers identified the Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete, the causative agent of Lyme disease, in autopsied brain tissue of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. In addition, they found a significant number of Borrelia-positive aggregates with a known biofilm marker, alginate. Immunohistochemical data also showed that Borrelia-positive aggregates co-localized with amyloid and anti-phospho-tau markers. Read more.
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Nature Microbiology recently published an article where researchers identified a sugar that influences cell wall function in Borrelia spirochetes. Authors state that Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria produces glycan chains in the cell wall where MurNAc is occasionally replaced with an unknown sugar. Investigators identified that B. burgdorferi produces glycans that contain GlcNAc–GlcNAc. Chitobiose is the unusual disaccharide, or sugar, identified in the cell wall of Borrelia bacteria. Read more.
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Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete in mouse, Photo by Stephen W. Barthold, DVM, PhD |
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Columbia CTN Announces 2nd Call |
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Treatment Research Ideas from Public, Clinicians, Others |
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Invitation to Participate: The Columbia Clinical Trails Newtwork Coordinating Center (CTNCC) welcomes input from the public, community clinicians, and other stakeholders regarding novel treatment approaches that it should review and consider. The CTN is soliciting suggestions from the public twice a year. A progress report for the first round is now available.
The contribution of treatment research ideas from the stakeholder community is an efficient way to communicate with clinical trials investigators and an invaluable way for our CTN Coordinating Center team to learn about novel treatment approaches that may improve the care of individuals with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
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In a recently published article, researchers present their findings of tick surveillance surveys conducted in summer of 2019. Surveys focused on the eastern counties of the state where 266 ticks were collected and three species were identified. Twenty-two Ixodes scapularis were collected from five locations, confirming the established population of this species in South Dakota. Twenty-one I. scapularis were tested, and Borrelia burgdorferi was detected in two adult ticks from two different sites. One of the ticks from Lincoln County represents the most southwestern detection of this pathogen in the midwestern US to date. Read more.
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This work was funded in part by a grant from the Lyme Disease Association.
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The Journal of Medical Entomology has published a recent article regarding utilization of integrated tick management (ITM). Researchers studied the effects of “configuration of bait box deployment” on the reduction of tick burden in a suburban/rural landscape. Researchers additionally investigated bait consumption and white-footed mouse (P. leucopus) abundances as a measure of the usage and effectiveness of bait boxes. Read more.
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The International Lyme & Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), a professional medical society, has launched a campaign to underline the importance of the relationship between the patient and the treating physician. The campaign kicked off with a jumbotron billboard in New York City’s Times Square. “We want to restore real healthcare for our patients and allow doctors to prescribe the best possible treatments without interference from insurance companies and other bureaucracies,” said Dr. Steven J. Bock, President, ILADS Board of Directors, in the ILADS campaign press release. Read more.
NOTE: On behalf of patients unable to get help for Lyme and tick-borne diseases (TBD), and for those yet to contract TBD, the Lyme Disease Association, Inc. supports the tenets of this ILADS campaign.
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A recent article published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, describes host associations of larval and nymphal Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged ticks) collected from eight lizard species. Researchers collected from two to three sampling arrays at five field sites in the southeastern US, including North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida. Samples were collected at each site every third week in 2011 and 2012. Read more.
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Dowling, A., et al., published a report in Journal of Medical Entomology with the results of a cooperative effort to survey ticks throughout Arkansas to better understand the heavy impacts of TBDs such as spotted fever rickettsiosis, and ehrlichiosis in the mid-south.
Logistical and financial barriers, and an expanding geographic area of concern, prompted researchers to collaborate with members of the public to gather data on human disease-causing pathogens carried by ticks. The 20-month period study focused on ticks that encounter humans most often. Arkansans contributed 9,002 ticks
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collected from 71 of the state’s 75 counties. Read more.
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In a recent article, Johns Hopkins presents its newly developed tool, the Lyme and Tickborne Disease (TBD) Dashboard, which tracks tickborne diseases at a global scale and displays maps and spatial data sets utilizing unique geographic context and includes a search function to find out what the incidence is in your US county. Read more.
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Information on a COVID-19 Treatment Study
LDA does not make recommendations on this study. The information is being provided as a public service. You need to direct all inquiries to the study group and/or your provider.
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Holiday Shop While Your Shopping Donates Money to LDA
No Cost to You Donation!
You can donate to LDA without costing you anything. Shop through smile.amazon.com, and a portion of the sales will then go to LDA for its programs! To sign up for AmazonSmile and have LDA receive a portion of sales click here.
You can also register to become an igive member through igive.com which includes 2326 online stores to shop from. By shopping at the store through igive.com website, LDA will receive a donation. Thank you!
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