Danger Dust

Researchers uncover why the body may keep reacting to a hidden threat even long after the bacteria are gone.

As many as 20 percent of patients treated for Lyme disease continue to experience lasting symptoms. Researchers believe this may be due to lingering antigens from the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium, similar to how residual viral particles are thought to contribute to long COVID-19. Individual variations in how the immune system responds to these bacterial remnants, particularly fragments of the cell wall, likely influence whether symptoms persist.

Now, researchers at Northwestern University may have identified a potential explanation. They suggest that fragments of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium, the pathogen responsible for Lyme disease, can persist in the liver even after the bacteria have been destroyed by antibiotics. These bacterial remnants, particularly from the cell wall, may continue to stimulate the immune system unnecessarily, causing symptoms that resemble a chronic illness.

This theory is similar to one proposed for long COVID, in which lingering viral particles are believed to provoke prolonged immune activity