Lyme 'persister' bacteria and a three-antibiotic cocktail: A study

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that a slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria caused severe symptoms in a mouse model, which may account for the persistent symptoms seen in up to twenty percent of Lyme patients that are not cured by the current Lyme antibiotic regimen. In addition, they also found that these "persister" Lyme bacteria were resistant to standard single-antibiotic Lyme treatments currently used to treat patients, while a three-antibiotic cocktail eradicated the Lyme bacteria in the mouse model. Joining me to discuss these findings from a recent study in Discovery Medicine is Ying Zhang, MD, PhD. Dr Zhang is a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School.