Association of Persistent Symptoms after Lyme Neuroborreliosis and Increased Levels of Interferon-α in Blood

Neurological lyme disease
3D Rendering Neurologic Lyme disease

The Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal (Hernández, S., et al.) 06.2023, published “Association of Persistent Symptoms after Lyme Neuroborreliosis and Increased Levels of Interferon-α in Blood.”

This study aims to determine the cause of persistent, lingering symptoms of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB), despite antibiotic drug treatments. This was done by testing if the symptoms were caused by “maladaptive immune responses” in a group of LNB patients. Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) is an infection of the central nervous system from borreliae and is the second most common type of Lyme disease in North America.

According to the study, most Lyme disease patients “respond well to antibiotic drug therapy and their disease resolves.” But this study focuses on those whose symptoms persist, even after months to years of antibiotic treatment, called posttreatment Lyme disease symptoms (PTLDS), which the cause of this is not currently well understood.


For More Information:

Read the article on the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal website.