Study finds evidence of persistent Lyme infection in brain despite aggressive antibiotic therapy.

I’d like to know what specific treatment the patient had.

Were coinfections treated?

I haven’t read the article yet.

Edit: “ Treatment with doxycycline for 10 days led to symptom resolution.“

Well that wasn’t long enough

And later

“ Treatment with IV ceftriaxone at age 60 for 8 weeks led to 60% improvement in cognition and interpersonal engagement; oral amoxicillin 500 mg three times daily was continued for 6 months after the IV treatment. The initial improvement was not sustained and subsequent antibiotic therapy with minocycline was of no clear benefit; “


I wonder why they didn’t continue with the IV Ceftriaxone if it was working - did it stop working ?


Maybe they should have consulted a LLMD re: abx protocols to use.


I haven’t had time to read it entirely - so I may be off base with my comments

Rainy - please don’t feel like you have to delete it. I was just making some points - no worries!!!

Thank you very much Girlie and running wild, I'm glad it wasn't taken the wrong way.

as a side note

the above case study is out of Columbia Uni - and the author Brian A. Fallon is the same researcher who is lead of the somewhat contentious Disulfiram study we were discussing on the other thread.

the wording and slightly odd design of the study lead some to wonder if the agenda behind it was to discredit DSF as a treatment and perhaps thereby chronic Lyme as a condition, but the fact that he has published a paper recently arguing for the persistence of chronic Lyme infection tends to argue against that being the case.....

In the documentary Under Our Skin - the one Dr who has since died - didn’t they find spirochetes in his brain.

running wild said...
To keep anyone reading from worrying, it's not like everyone with Lyme is going to have the same situation. But treating to the best possible measure and continuing to so so is critical. There are so many things that "could" happen, and it's good to stay informed. For anyone new on the forum, it's not like all of us are doomed to this, and I know that's not what anyone is trying to imply.

good point - i sometimes re-read my own posts and think - "that's a bit grim"

it is important to remember Lyme disease presents on a spectrum
lots of people will be infected and have no symptoms and not even know it - and all the way to the other end - like some of the cases above.

we are not all doomed.

and for balance - my partner seems to have made a near full recovery - with only minimal antibiotics, some Buhner herbs some basic supplements and a ketogenic diet.

astroman said...


Grier and McDonald found that MS brains are far from "pathogen free", some had lyme, but lots of microscopic worms too. As far as the general non-ill population- prob no one knows.

yep - but i think there are studies now that found a microbiome of sorts in even healthy brains

all sorts of areas in the human body previously thought to be sterile actually have low levels of microbes in them.

it seems the level and type of microbes is important and also how your immune system is responding to them

potsnpans said...
When I first saw this I was thinking it was nothing new really but maybe this is the significant part:

"(They employed) RNAscope to determine whether the spirochetes were viable"

I understand Sapi's team found biofilm so maybe that also assumes viability somehow...

yep there are methods now that can tell the difference between live, currently metabolising spirochetes and dead ones - i think Zhang et all have been using that in some of their papers.

but the original lady who died was studied so closely because she was the first case proven by culture to have live spirochetes after IV ceftriaxone - thought to be bactericidal for Lyme up till that time - so they knew 20 or so years ago that they can survive most even IV abx.

so i don't think the live bit is really new.

perhaps its just the fact that the medical establishment doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that it happens that drives the researchers to produce additional papers on the topic.

what i found interesting in the Sapi paper was the distribution of microcolonies in organs.
so spirochetes were no so much spread uniformly throughout the tissues - or found in large clumps - but concentrated in many many tiny colonies - scattered throughout many organs - each containing many spirochetes in biofilm. That has implications for organ function and treatment approaches.