Premium Essay

Borrelia Burgdorferi

In: Science

Submitted By 0okevino0
Words 303
Pages 2
All known organisms need iron to survive. All except one - Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, has evolved to use manganese instead.

For almost all organisms, iron is essential in processes like making new enzymes and other proteins. Perhaps the most obvious example is its role in haemoglobin, the oxygen-transporting protein found in the red blood cells of almost all vertebrates. Researchers knew that the bacteria B. burgdorferi did not need iron, but have now discovered that it requires high levels of manganese instead.

The bacteria's use of manganese rather than iron helps explain how it can evade the immune system. One of the immune system's responses against invaders is to lower the amount of iron in the blood. This starves the pathogen of the iron it needs (as well as making us feel terrible) and works against almost every pathogen. But if the invader doesn't need iron, like B. burgdorferi, this attack is quite ineffective.

Antibiotics are currently the only treatment for Lyme disease. Penicillin is generally effective if Lyme disease is caught early, but it works by attacking a bacterium's cell walls - something certain forms of Borrelia don't have. The team behind the study hope knowledge of manganese's role will aid the manufacture of new treatments.

"We'd like to find targets inside pathogenic cell that could thwart their growth," Valerie Culotta (John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and involved in the study). "The best targets are enzymes that the pathogens have, but people do not, so they would kill the pathogens but not harm people."

The bacteria's manganese mechanism could be a promising target, and the team's next plan is to map the bacteria's metal-containing proteins and find out how it extracts manganese from its environment.

Credit: CDC/ Claudia Molins photo: Janice Haney

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Scientific Literacy Assignment: Lyme Disease

...azzmin Wright Summer 2017 Bio275 Paper #1 (Scientific Literacy Assignment #10) Lyme Disease Lyme Disease is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi which is transmitted from animals to humans. (1). The means of transmission are arthropod vectors, specifically ticks. Those who have been exposed to Lyme disease experience symptoms such as fever, heachache , lack of energy and skin rashes. (2) The disease is characterized by a ‘bullseye’ rash called erythema migrans. Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete that is approximately 20-30mm in length and .2-.3mm in width . This means that the motility is via an axial filament (endoflagella),...

Words: 281 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Treatment of Lyme Disease

...treatment with drugs such as ceftriaxone or penicillin. Approximately 10 to 20% of patients treated for Lyme disease with a recommended 2–4 week course of antibiotics will have lingering symptoms of fatigue, pain, or joint and muscle aches. In some cases, these can last for more than 6 months. Although often called "chronic Lyme disease," this condition is properly known as "Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" (PTLDS). Prevention Prevention is based on avoidance of exposure to ticks. Long sleeves and long pants tucked into socks are recommended. Careful examination of the skin for ticks after being outdoors can locate ticks for removal before they transmit B burgdorferi. http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/Treatment/ Embers ME, Barthold SW, Borda JT, Bowers L, Doyle L, et al. (2012) Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Rhesus macaques following antibiotic treatment of disseminated infection. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29914 Morse SA, Brooks GF, Carroll KC, Butel JS, Mietzner TA. Chapter 24. Spirochetes & Other Spiral Microorganisms. In: Morse SA, Brooks GF, Carroll KC, Butel JS, Mietzner TA, eds. Jawetz,...

Words: 307 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Lyme Disease Research Paper

...Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria known as borrelia burgdorferi and is one of the most common vector-born diseases. It is commonly transmitted through bites from infected black legged ticks. Some of the more common symptoms are fever, headache, fatigue and a rash that almost everyone who gets Lyme disease has called erythema migrans. Lyme disease is diagnosed through looking at the symptoms as well as possible exposure to infected ticks and if it goes untreated it can often spread to the heart and the nervous system as well as through your joints. It contains three stages, the first being a rash at the site of the bite, the second being cardiac and neurologic involvement, and the third being arthritis in large and important joints such as...

Words: 1440 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Lyme Disease Research Paper

...Introduction Lyme disease is a bacterial disease that is caused by the bite of a tick, these ticks carry the spiral shaped bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. A human will contract this disease if they are bitten by an eight-legged tick that is in the middle stage of its life, called nymphs. If the tick is attached to the body for 36 hours than it can transfer the Borrelia burgdorferi to the person which it is attached to. Which is why it is important to check for ticks if you have been in an wooded area. Lyme disease has varying symptoms and “It can affect any organ of the body, including the brain and nervous system, muscles and joints, and the heart” (Lyme Disease.org). Lyme disease has three different stages of the disease that each have their own symptoms involved with the stage. It can be hard to diagnosis this disease based off the fact that is has many symptoms like other many diseases or other health problems so patients are frequently misdiagnosed. Lyme disease may not get diagnosed on time before it becomes chronic Lyme disease which is much harder and can take much longer to treat. Without diagnosis and proper treatment, the bacteria will continue to move throughout the body and will start to affect many other organs causing way worse effects than if they...

Words: 1303 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Lyme Disease Research Paper

...Lyme’s Disease     Lyme disease is a bacterial disease caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. The organism is a rod-like spirochete. Spirochetes are a group of bacteria unique in the way they move about the organism. This group of bacteria moves in a spiral motion.     There are three stages in the clinical signs for Lyme’s Disease. Primary signs will begin after the first or second day of feeding on the animal and tend to develop in 90% of cases. Erythema will develop which is often accompanied by a mild to moderate fever. Generalized lymphadenopathy develops as well which in some cases may lead to the animal displaying signs of lameness. Secondary signs will develop in about 10% of cases. These signs include glomerulonephritis which results in a protein losing nephropathy and is usually fatal. The extremely rare third stage of Lyme disease include attacks...

Words: 716 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Plasmid Profile Analysis of Portuguese Borrelia Lusitaniae Strains

...manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases 1 (2010) 125–128 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/ttbdis Original article Plasmid profile analysis of Portuguese Borrelia lusitaniae strains Liliana Vitorino a , Gabriele Margos b , Líbia Zé-Zé c , Klaus Kurtenbach b,1 , Margarida Collares-Pereira d,∗ Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, Centro de Genética e Biologia Molecular and Instituto de Ciência Aplicada e Tecnologia, Lisboa, Portugal Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom c Centro de Estudos de Vectores e Doencas Infecciosas Dr. Franscisco Cambournac, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Águas de Moura, Portugal ¸ d Unidade de Leptospirose e Borreliose de Lyme, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos, FCT/UNL, Rua da Junqueira 96, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal b a a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Plasmid profiles of 2 Portuguese Borrelia lusitaniae strains, one isolated from a human patient and the other one from an Ixodes ricinus...

Words: 4638 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Zoonotic Disease Study

...Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia sp., Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and Rickettsia sp. These diseases are found all over the US, according to the CDC in 2010, Anaplasma phagocytophilum was reported to have 1761 cases, Babesia sp was reported to have 1762 cases, while Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato had the most at 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported each year, and Rickettsia sp had 6 cases per million. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the bacterium that causes Anaplasmosis which can be fatal if not treated correctly, a few of the several possible symptoms are fever, headache, confusion, and abdominal pain,...

Words: 853 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Lymphatic Web Quest

...Bubonic Plague? The infectious agent for Bubonic Plague is basterium Yersinia Pestis. 4. By how much was the world population reduced during the Plague pandemic? The world population reduced an estimated 450 million during the Plague pandemic. 5. What year (within the past 100 years) did the world experience a flu pandemic? In 1918, also known as the Spanish Flu. 6. What are 3 symptoms of chikungunya fever? 3 symptoms of chikungunya fever are fever, headache, and vomiting. 7. What bacterium causes Lyme’s disease? Borrelia burgdorferi is the bacterium that cuases Lyme’s disease. 8. What is ‘erythema migrans?’ Erythema migrans refers to the rash often seen in the early stages of Lyme disease. It’s an actual skin infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. It is also the only manifestation of Lymes disease that allows clinical diagnosis in the absence of laboratory confirmation. 9. Find a disease transmitted by rabbits and list 2 symptoms. Tularemia is a disease transmitted by rabbits. Symptoms are fever and diarrhea. 10. What are symptoms of guinea worm disease? Symptoms of guinea worm disease include fever, swelling and pain in the area that the worm is about to come out of. 11. How long can a guinea worm grow? A guinea worm can grow up to 2-3 feet in length....

Words: 518 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Lyme Disease

...bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. Transmission occurs primarily through the bite of an infected deer tick (Ixodes scapularis). Patients with LD may have an array of symptoms affecting various body systems, depending on the stage of the disease and length of time since infection. There is a two-step testing method used to diagnose LD recommended by the Center of Disease Control (CDC) and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). According to guidelines from IDSA, antibiotics are recommended for all cases of LD, but length of treatment and route of administration differ, depending on stage of illness. Introduction Over the past several decades, Lyme disease (LD) has become a serious public health concern in some areas of the United States and Europe. LD, first recognized in the 1970s when it was identified as the cause of a cluster of pediatric arthritis cases in Lyme, Connecticut, has quickly emerged as a growing epidemic (Nicholas et al. 2013). The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that approximately 30,000 people per year are diagnosed with LD in the US (Moore 2015). LD is the result of an infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted by a bite from the tick species Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus (Nicholas et al. 2013). Transmission Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi ...

Words: 1485 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Commnunity

...Introduction “Borrelia burgdorferi is a parasite transmitted by infected ticks from deer, mice, and other small rodents that harbor the spirochete”(1). These animals can have huge numbers of the bacteria and not show any symptoms of disease. Yet when these same spirochetes are transmitted to humans, they cause problems in many organ systems.Lyme disease is a tick-borne inflammatory disorder caused by a spirochete, B. burgdorferi. Its clinical hallmark is an early expanding skin lesion, erythema migrans (1), which may be followed weeks to months later by neurologic, cardiac, or joint abnormalities. The B. burgdorferi spirochete causes most Lyme disease in the United States. All stages of Lyme disease may respond to antibiotics, but treatment of early disease is the most successful. “Lyme arthritis” was recognized in November 1975 as the result of an unusual geographic cluster of children with inflammatory arthropathy in the region of Lyme, Connecticut (1). Its early elucidation—natural history (1), immunopathogenesis (2), epidemiology (2, 3), pathology(2), and therapy (3) was carried out primarily at Yale University by Steere, Malawista, and their colleagues. It soon became clear that this was a multisystem disorder (Lyme disease) (2,3) occurring at any age,in both sexes, and often preceded by a characteristic expanding skin lesion, erythema chronicum migrans (2). In 1982, B.b (2) isolated the spirochete that bears his name from Ixodes scapularis ticks collected on Shelter...

Words: 817 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Lyme Disease

...Lyme Disease Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection that is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which is characterized by neurologic, joint, and cardiac manifestations. Lyme disease is carried by ticks. The manifestation begins with a small bite from the tick and then a rash formed. When the development of a rash is noticed, it is often a serious issue that requires a doctor’s care, and can be fatal. The symptoms for Lyme make it difficult to diagnosis because they can be misconstrued by a large number of other diseases that range from arthritis to multiple sclerosis to Alzheimer’s disease. The origin of Lyme can be traced back to Lyme, Connecticut and the disease was first recognized in the 1960’s. Polly Murray moved to Lyme, Connecticut in 1959 with her four children. Within a few years of living in Lyme she began having periodic flu-like illnesses, headaches, and odd rashes. When she first went to the doctor they thought she had rheumatic fever and the doctors gave her penicillin. This helped for a little while but the symptoms returned in the spring and summer. In the early 1970’s Murray asked her doctor if this illness could be a delayed reaction to a tick bite, because she knew she had been bitten by ticks over the years. The doctor said no because she had no symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and in those days that was the only disease people thought was caused by ticks. Soon kids all over her neighborhood were coming down with the same symptoms...

Words: 999 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Case Studies

...Case 2 1. What is your best diagnosis of this case? From my research on the signs and symptoms that this patient presented I would diagnose her with Lyme’s disease. 2. What features are critical to your diagnosis? Lyme’s disease is a bacterial infection caused by bacteria called Borrelia Burgdorferi. This is a bacterium that is carried by ticks. The patient has all of the signs and symptoms of this disease. Prior to the onset of symptoms she was in the wilderness in Wisconsin where she said there were a large number of insects, including ticks. She presented with fever, fatigue, tender joints, headache, stiff neck, backache, irregular heartbeat, decreased concentration, as well as a “bulls eye” rash. All of these symptoms lead to Lyme’s disease. 3. What further steps should be taken to clear up the problem? The patient’s symptoms should be treated with antibiotics. The type of antibiotics would depend on the stage of the disease. In this patient’s case, she has signs and symptoms of being in the latter stages because of the joint stiffness and decreased concentration. Case 8 1. What is your diagnosis here? What organism is responsible? From my research on this 4 year old patient, I concluded that she has all of the signs and symptoms of E. Coli Infection. This infection is caused by the bacterium, E. Coli that lives in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. 2. What pathogenic feature of this organism caused the severity of this problem...

Words: 561 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

College Admissions Essay: The 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

...Here the students are not only encouraged to participate in research, but it is considered the norm. Professors, with the assistance of students and graduate students, conduct extensive research on a variety of subfields. This includes Dustin Brisson, who studies the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. This particular research project enthralls me, due to it encompassing my preferred area of study, the relationship between pathogens and their hosts. The Department of Biology also offers independent study for undergraduate students. This allows students to experience research both in lab and field settings. Here I would be able to explore quorum sensing, the communication between bacteria, through a self conducted research. Yet research is only one aspect of education at the College of Liberal Arts and...

Words: 647 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Micro Project 1 Outline

...Disease: Historic time line: 1909- Swedish physician Arvid Afxelus observes a bull's eye rash around a patient's tick bite. 1930-1940- Swedish dermatologist Sven Hellerstrom links erythema migrans to meningitis in multiple patients. 1970- First U.S. Case of erythema migrans reported in Milwaukee, Wis. 1975- Reseachers link juvenile arthritis cases in Lyme, Conn. To tick bites. 1977- Yale rheumatologist Allen Steere provides the first definitive account of the disease 1980- The CDC begins to monitor the spread of Lyme Disease 1982- Zoologist and microbiologist Willy Burgdorfer of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rock Mountain Lab, Mont., isolates the bacterium that causes Lyme Disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. The CDC reports 492 cases of Lyme Disease. 1984- Westchester County, NY declares a Lyme epidemic 1988- CDC reports 4,572 Lyme cases 1991- CDC requires state and local health departments nation wide to collect and verify data on Lyme infections 1994- CDC adopts two-step test standard to diagnose Lyme Disease. 1998- CDC records 16,802 cases of Lyme. Drugmaker SmithKline Beecham begins marketing Lymerix vaccine. 2002- The maker of Lymerix withdrawals the vaccine from the market after controversy over alleged side effects undercuts demand. 2006- Infectious Diseases Society of America publishes Lyme guidelines that find no convincing scientific evidence for the existence of chronic Lyme Disease. Connecticut attorney...

Words: 759 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Case Study: BIOL 840 Infectious Disease

...What tests should be run to identify his infection? What is the main distinguishing character of this parasite in a blood smear? 3. What treatment would you provide this man? 4. Why is it common for this disease to be confused with other parasitic diseases? Answers: 1. Differential Diagnosis – a. Lyme Disease - Borrelia burgdorferi i. Transmitted by infected blacklegged ticks ii. Common in areas of the Northeastern United States iii. Symptoms include: 1. Fever, headache, fatigue 2. Erythema migrans rash (red bullseye) iv. Tested for using ELISA for B. burgorferi antibodies if no “bullseye” rash is present b. Malaria - Plasmodium spp. i. Transmitted through mosquitoes ii. Largely eradicated in the United States 1. Most commonly found in international travelers iii. Symptoms include: 1. High fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting 2. Enlarged liver, mild jaundice, enlarged spleen 3. Anemia caused by the destruction of red blood cells iv. Diagnosed through the detection of parasites in the blood c. Babesiosis- Babesia microti i. Parasitic disease spread through...

Words: 715 - Pages: 3