103 Inflammatory Mechanisms And Biomarkers In The Chronic Manifestations of Lyme Disease-Alaedini, Armin

<p>Ep.103</p> <p>Dr. Armin Alaedini is a professor at Columbia University, where he leads a research laboratory focused on studying the role of the immune system, host-microbe interaction, and diet in complex disorders. His team’s research on Lyme disease in the past 15 years has focused on the chronic and post-treatment manifestations of the infection, leading to seminal findings that provide molecular evidence of a biological basis for the patient’s symptoms. He is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Global Lyme Alliance and a Working Group Member of the NIH Advisory Council on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.</p> <p> </p> <p>Key Takeaways:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>How does inflammation become permanent? </li> <li>Could there be abnormalities in the immune response system because of Lyme disease?</li> <li>Could there be a biological basis for persistent inflammation?</li> <li>There is a biological basis for the symptoms Lyme patients are facing. This is not trivial, because there wasn’t scientific evidence to say it wasn’t psychosomatic. </li> <li>The infection causes inflammation. Inflammation then becomes chronic. </li> <li>Why do some patients recover and others don’t?</li> <li>Remove the infection, and then you still have to remove the inflammation. Borrelia components could remain. </li> <li>Even after treatment with antibiotics, you can still have Borrelia in the body. (Animal studies)</li> <li>The inflammation that patients have early on in the infection is different than the persistent inflammation that patients have in the later stages of infection. (12:00)</li> <li>Biological markers to demonstrate that patients have chronic persistence of inflammation. This is really important because it gives us a handle to study these patients.</li> <li>There is basically no federal funding for Lyme disease. The NIH gives out a minuscule amount of funding for Lyme disease. Lack of funding is a major reason we haven’t made strides.</li> <li>We know a lot about Borrelia (about the infection itself) but the c