Chronic Lyme disease has frustrated doctors and patients alike for years. The severe, lingering symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, arthritis, or cognitive difficulties, have disrupted patients’ lives and treatments have been elusive.
But what if there was a way to prevent acute Lyme disease from progressing to the longer-term version?
That’s the premise that has driven Kim Lewis’ research. And now, the university distinguished professor of biology and director of the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern says he has found a targeted treatment for acute Lyme disease that could do just that.
“Our educated guess is that it will prevent chronic Lyme,” Lewis says. Along with co-lead authors Nadja Leimer, Xiaoqian Wu, and Yu Imai (all postdoctoral researchers at Northeastern), Lewis describes the revelation in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Cell.
The promise of this new treatment to prevent chronic Lyme arises from Lewis’ previous research into how acute Lyme disease progresses to the chronic version.
Read more on News@Northeastern.
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