The bacteria that cause Lyme disease can survive in organ tissue after treatment with a full course of antibiotics months after infection, according to a new study with non-human primates.
The study results seem to support claims of lingering symptoms some patients who have received antibiotic treatment for the disease have reported.
Researchers at Tulane National Primate Research Center studied 10 primates exposed to ticks carrying
Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Four months after infection, half of the animals received the antibiotic doxycycline orally for 28 days at a proportional dose to that used in human patients.
Five animal subjects remained untreated and all were evaluated by more than five different diagnostic methods to characterize any remaining infection. Researchers used several important techniques, including xenodiagnoses, to determine if the bacteria persisted.
Researchers have identified and replicated a hyperimmune response in nonhuman primates that could one day lead to treatments for people with severe cases of COVID-19.
“This may be an important first step in understanding why some people become critically ill from COVID-19,” says senior author Jay Rappaport, director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center. “Once we understand that, we will be better equipped to treat them.”
Most of the more than 2 million deaths caused by severe COVID-19 are the result of a hyperimmune response in the body that can rapidly cascade into respiratory failure.
Veterinary pathologist and corresponding author Robert Blair says that this is the first time scientists have observed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a nonhuman primate model of COVID-19.
Researchers at Tulane National Primate Research Center have observed severe disease in aged African green monkeys exposed to SARS-CoV-2 that mimics what doctors are seeing in their most critically