Scientists identify potential key to Lyme disease

Hello everyone,
I had to get this on the blog. This could be great news for Lyme disease patients. Let's hope this research is the real deal. I know many of us are hoping for a major breakthrough on this terrible disease. If you haven't watched the film "Under Our Skin", please do yourself a favor and buy the DVD. It is the best film ever made about Lyme disease, in my opinion. Go to http://www.underourskin.com to watch the extended trailer for the film. I hope everyone suffering with the aches and pains of Lyme disease will find comfort in this news article and the new film. Hang in there, miracles are starting to happen.

The best to everyone,
Richard



Feb. 9, 2009

Dallas, Texas
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept353744/files/517121.html

Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have
identified a protein that may help give Lyme disease its bite.

The findings suggest that the bacterial protein, which aids in
transporting the metal manganese, is essential for the bacterium that
causes Lyme disease to become virulent.

“We believe our findings provide a foundation for further defining metal homeostasis in this human pathogen and may lead to new strategies for thwarting Lyme disease,” said Dr. Michael Norgard, chairman of microbiology at UT Southwestern and senior author of a study now online and in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lyme disease, discovered in 1977, is the most prevalent tick-borne
infection in the U.S. Borrelia burgdorfei, the bacterium that causes
Lyme disease, lives in infected mammals and in the midgut of ticks. When
an infected tick bites an animal or a human, the bacteria are
transmitted to the new host. Infection causes fever, malaise, fatigue,
headache, muscle and joint aches, and a characteristic “bull’s-eye” rash
that surrounds the site of infection.

To establish infection, however, the bacterium also must acquire a
number of essential nutrients, including metals like manganese from its
mammalian and tick hosts. Until now, no metal transporter responsible
for this acquisition had been identified in this bacterium.

In the current study, microbiologists examined whether bacteria
genetically engineered to lack this manganese transporter, called BmtA,
transmitted Lyme disease to ticks and mice. The bacterium lacking the
transporter, Dr. Norgard said, grows a bit more slowly in the test tube
but is not dramatically different from the normal version.

“When you try to grow it in a mouse, however, it can’t grow,” he said.
“The fact that the bacterium without this particular manganese
transporter can’t grow in a mouse raises important questions about what
aspects of physiology and metabolism contribute to the pathogenicity of
the organism.”

Lead author Dr. Zhiming Ouyang, postdoctoral researcher in microbiology
at UT Southwestern, said another newly discovered characteristic about
the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is that it doesn’t seem to
require iron to function, something most other pathogens need to survive.

“Out of the thousands of bacteria known, the Lyme disease agent and only
one or two other bacterial species do not require iron for growth,” Dr.
Ouyang said. “That raises the question as to what other metal co-factors
the Lyme disease bacterium depends on to carry out the work that iron
does for all these other biological systems. Our research suggests that
manganese is a really important one.”

The next step is to understand the exact mechanism of how manganese
functions in the organism.

“I really think that there’s also something to the notion that manganese
may regulate the expression of other virulence factors,” Dr. Norgard
said. “It could be that manganese has more of an indirect effect, but
more research is needed to determine what must happen for Borrelia
burgdorfei to become virulent.”

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine collaborated on
the study.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases.