As temperatures continue to rise, so too will cases of Lyme disease and other tick-born illnesses. Therefore a search to stop its spread and treat its symptoms has picked up some urgency — and now offers a glimmer of hope.
Warmer weather give nasty little vectors like the deer ticks that carry the disease a longer time period to spread it. The ticks carry the disease from their “reservoir” of small woodland mammals into human hosts by biting them. Although it is most prevalent in wooded areas, the deer tick also can live in long grassy areas.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 89,000 Lyme disease cases in 2023 based on reports from state health departments. Other methods that track treatment for the disease’s symptoms put the number of cases at 476,000. The actual number of Lyme’s disease cases is likely somewhere in between.
Identifying and Treating Lyme Disease
Infected humans sometimes discover circular rashes on their bodies. They also often develop headaches, fever and fatigue. If the disease remains untreated, it can spread to the heart, nervous system and joints — sometimes resulting in arthritis-like pain.
Treatment for the disease — usually a course of antibiotics — has proven less than ideal. Antibiotics are more effected when the disease is identified early — which isn’t often the case. Also, some long-term effects of the infection can linger for years.
As the disease gains more traction and more people are struggling with its long-term effects, more researchers are searching for better treatments. Researchers reported in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, that they’ve found a tantalizing target — lactate dehydrogenase (BbLDH). That enzyme plays a key role in the metabolism of Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen responsible for the disease.
Read More: What Is Lyme Disease, and Why Are Cases on the Rise?
Shutting Down the Pathogen
In the new study, the researchers first explored the enzyme’s structure to understand where they might target a drug. Then they turned off parts of the enzyme, to determine which parts were necessary for its growth. Once they identified them, they modified those elements.
Those tweaks effectively stopped the pathogen in its tracks. It was unable to grow in a petri dish and couldn’t infect animal models. Once they confirmed that the enzyme was, indeed a good target, they found several molecular candidates that could effectively shut BbLDH down.
“We discovered that BbLDH has a unique biochemical and structural feature and it is essential for B. burgdorferi growth and infectivity,” Chunhao (Chris) Lia researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “BbLDH can serve as an ideal target for developing genus-specific inhibitors that can be potentially used to treat and prevent Lyme disease.”
While an actual medicine will likely take years to be developed and then tested, a potential prevention and treatment for the disease should be welcome news for anyone spending time outside, particularly in woodsy settings.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
