Strains of the Lyme bacteria borrelia burgdorferi have a protective outer layer that appears to function as armor against the body's immune system, new research finds.
"Some get a more severe form of the illness, such as inflammation in the heart or the membranes around the brain,” Mead said.borrelia burgdorferi strains because the bacteria can be detected in the skin and other parts of the body for just a short time. In addition, tests for Lyme generally look only for antibodies, not the actual bacteria.
It's unknown how many strains of the Lyme bacteria there are. Environmental pressures keep the bacteria mutating, Lemieux said. Still, it’s likely that the particular strains of borrelia burgdorferi included in the research aren’t the only factor leading to long Lyme in some people, Lemieux said. That protein tells the body’s immune cells to seek and destroy invading microbes. High levels of the protein can lead the immune system to overreact, which can cause pain, swelling and fatigue, some of the very symptoms common to patients with long Lyme.The new research is at a very early stage, but is an important step to understanding and treating the disease, said Kim Lewis, a Lyme expert and a professor of biology at Northeastern University in Boston.
The new study “is well designed and rigorous,” said Armin Alaedini, a Lyme disease researcher and immunologist at Columbia University in New York. “It really confirms and extends earlier work showing that certain specific genotypes are associated with specific manifestations of the disease.”
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