Neuroimaging study reveals brain functional and structural abnormalities in post-treatment Lyme disease patients

Overview: Neuroimaging studies have revealed characteristic changes in the physiology of white matter and other brain tissues in Lyme disease patients during the post-treatment phase. The study also found abnormal activity in the frontal lobe, a brain region associated with memory retrieval and concentration in people treated with Lyme.

sauce: johns hopkins medicine

In a study using specialized imaging technology, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine found “white matter” in patients after treatment for Lyme disease, a condition that affects about 10% to 20% of about half a million Americans. and others have reported characteristic changes in brain tissue physiology. People who get Lyme disease every year.

Findings of the study published in the journal on October 26 pro swanhelps to establish and validate that the long-term memory and other cognitive deficits experienced by Lyme disease patients after treatment are related to functional and structural changes in the brain.

Early symptoms of Lyme disease include a characteristic rash, flu-like pain and fever, joint pain, and fatigue, but when treated with strict antibiotics, the disease usually goes away.

However, in long-term patients who may continue to have symptoms of Lyme disease after antibiotics are finished, the condition is a chronic disease that includes fatigue, muscle aches, insomnia, depression, and difficulty concentrating and memory. May be characterized by cognitive deficits such as disability. Such individuals generally have no apparent clinical or evidence of ongoing problems.

Neurology, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Medicine from Johns Hopkins Medicine to identify what they suspect are long-term changes in brain function that may be causing certain persistent Lyme disease symptoms. Scientific researchers are working with the Lyme Disease Research Center to develop functional MRI (fMRI) scans of the brain, a technique that detects changes in cerebral blood flow. These scans allow researchers to track changes in the brain in real time.

John Orcott, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center, said, “Objective biologic measurements of Lyme disease after treatment are usually routine MRIs, CT scans, or blood tests. It cannot be identified using tests.At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.”We had to expand our assessment methods,” he adds.

Led by lead author Cherie Marvel, Ph.D., the team recruited 12 men and women with post-treatment Lyme disease, and 18 participants with no history of Lyme disease, for a short-term study. They underwent fMRI scans while performing a memory task.

Imaging studies revealed abnormal activity in the frontal lobe, a region of the brain responsible for cognitive tasks such as recalling memories and focusing. Participants were asked to memorize and recall uppercase and lowercase letters as well as the alphabetical order of multiple letters.

In particular, researchers have shown that differences in frontal lobe activity between the two groups in the brain’s white matter are not usually visible on fMRI scans because this tissue functions with less blood flow than gray matter, the study said. said the person. White matter is important for moving information around the brain, acting like a train depot or a railroad track that helps deliver information to the gray matter.

“We found that certain areas of the frontal lobe were underactivated and others overactivated, which was somewhat expected,” says Marvel, an associate professor of neurology. says. “However, we did not see this same white matter activity in the group without post-treatment lime.”

To confirm this finding, the researchers performed a second form of imaging, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), on all 12 participants, including Lyme, and 12 of the 18 participants without Lyme. used on people. DTI detects the direction of water movement in brain tissue. This unique approach corroborates their fMRI findings and uncovers new findings: Within the same white matter regions identified by fMRI, the patient’s axons (extended neurons that carry electrical signals to other neurons) water was spreading or leaking along the

Surprisingly, the researchers also found that white matter axonal leakage correlated with reduced cognitive deficits and better outcomes in the post-treatment Lyme disease patients studied.

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The researchers believe that the observed increased activity in white matter may reflect a beneficial immune response in Lyme patients after treatment.

However, the findings also correlated with Lyme disease patients taking longer to complete memory tasks after treatment. However, it indicates that the physiology and function of white matter has been altered and may come at a cost.

“Working with experts from a variety of fields to address this question has yielded these new findings. I hope you will answer me,” she says.

Marvel and Aucott say the study may help elucidate the underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets of Lyme neurological disease. Their findings may also be relevant to other types of infection-related chronic illnesses, such as his long-term COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome.

The research team also includes Kylie Alm, Diya Bhattacharya, Alison Rebman, Arnold Bakker, Jason Clayton, Erica Kozero, Arun Venkatesan and Priyanka Nadkarni of Johns Hopkins Medicine. So does Owen Morgan, now at Cornell University.

About this Lyme Disease Research News

author: press office
sauce: johns hopkins medicine
contact: Press Office – Johns Hopkins Medicine
image: This image was credited to Cherie Marvel, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Original research: Findings are displayed in: pro swan