Borrelia News and Research

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Certain malaria parasites use a mechanism to cross the blood–brain barrier

Malaria is one of the most common causes of death in children in Africa and is triggered by a small parasite that lives in the blood. When the parasite builds up in the blood vessels of the brain, it develops into one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, cerebral malaria.

27 Jan 2021

UMass Amherst epidemiologist receives NIH grant to develop new tick surveillance method

A University of Massachusetts Amherst infectious disease epidemiologist has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new surveillance method to better identify specific locations with the highest risk for tick-borne disease transmission.

25 Sep 2020

Researchers receive $1.9 million federal grant to find Lyme disease vaccine

Pesky, yet dangerous ticks are no longer latching exclusively onto hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Milder winters and disrupted habitats have driven them out of the woods, with Lyme disease cases in the United States tripling since the late 1990s.

9 Sep 2020

Campylobacter infections among Danes increased by almost a fifth in 2019

In 2019, the number of registered campylobacter infections increased by almost a fifth and studies show that many of the campylobacter outbreaks recorded that year were caused by chicken meat.

3 Sep 2020

SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission possible in North American deer mice

The current COVID-19 pandemic began as a zoonosis in China, at the end of 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel betacoronavirus with significant similarity to an earlier virus of the same family.

11 Aug 2020

$5 million gift aims to propel Lyme disease research and education

To the Fairbairns, the symptoms--debilitating fatigue, joint pain, cognitive problems--were as worrisome as they were mystifying. All four members of the family had them.

6 Jul 2020

Discovery provides a potential target for infectious diseases immunotherapy

NIH investigators and colleagues have discovered that when the immune system first responds to infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria, a natural brake on the response prevents overactivation.

23 Jun 2020

Virginia Tech researcher wins $661,216 grant to study Lyme arthritis

With a $661,216 grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, Brandon Jutras, an assistant professor of biochemistry in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will study Lyme arthritis, including the cellular component that contributes to it.

22 May 2020

WSU researchers crack the Lyme disease code

The next time a tick feeds on you, Washington State University researchers hope to make sure persistent arthritis caused by Lyme disease doesn't linger for a lifetime.

30 Apr 2020

Researchers study how environmental factors affect pathogenic bacteria spread by ticks

Researchers at the University of Helsinki, the University of Zurich and the University of Exeter have carried out modelling on how environmental factors affect the occurrence of human-pathogenic bacteria found in the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus), a tick species common in Europe.

19 Dec 2019

New paper-based test for early Lyme diagnosis

A new paper in the journal ACS Nano reports the development of an incredibly cheap and highly sensitive test to diagnose Lyme disease in its earliest stages, when it can be most easily, effectively and inexpensively treated.

18 Dec 2019

Paper-based blood test can quickly and sensitively diagnose early-stage Lyme disease

After a day hiking in the forest, the last thing a person wants to discover is a tick burrowing into their skin. Days after plucking off the bloodsucking insect, the hiker might develop a rash resembling a bull's-eye, a tell-tale sign of Lyme disease.

18 Dec 2019

Lyme vaccine on the horizon, says new study

Lyme disease is a dreaded disease caused by the bite of an infected tick. The only way to prevent it is by not getting bitten by the tick. However, this is not a practical recommendation, since even today about 300,000 thousand people are diagnosed with this infection, in the US alone, and over 100,000 in Europe, each year.

17 Oct 2019

New paper defines strategy for developing effective vaccines for Lyme disease

There is no effective vaccine currently available to prevent Lyme disease in humans.

17 Oct 2019

New rapid assay for Lyme disease could lead to a point-of-care diagnostic test

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology describes a new rapid assay for Lyme disease that could lead to a practical test for use by healthcare providers.

16 Oct 2019

New microfluidic test can detect Lyme disease within 15 minutes

Some 300,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year. Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted by the bite of infected Ixodes ticks, the disease if left untreated can cause serious neurologic, cardiac, and/or rheumatologic complications.

11 Oct 2019