Medical therapy used to inhibit the growth of cancer cells may potentially become an effective treatment for Lyme disease, according to recent research conducted by a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, New England Regional Center of Vector-borne Diseases (NEWVEC).
Stephen Rich, a vector-borne disease expert, professor of microbiology, and executive director of NEWVEC, stated that while it’s early days yet, the findings are encouraging.
Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., is spread through infected deer ticks.
It affects around 476,000 people each year in the U.S., and doesn’t always respond to antibiotics.
Linking Cancer and Lyme Disease
The research was spurred by an intriguing observation by Patrick Pearson, a former Ph.D. candidate in Rich’s lab.
Pearson noticed that cancer cells and Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease, share a unique characteristic in the way they grow — they both rely solely on glycolysis for their metabolism.
Glycolysis depends on a molecule named lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Pearson hypothesized that LDH inhibitors, which are used as drug therapies to target specific cancers, might also be effective against Lyme disease.
In vitro experiments confirmed Pearson’s hypothesis. A variety of commercially available LDH inhibitors were tested on Borrelia in culture.
Some of these inhibitors, namely gossypol, AT-101, and oxamate, significantly affected the growth of B. burgdorferi in vitro, indicating their potential as treatment for Lyme disease.
Next Steps and Broader Implications
While these results are promising, the research is still in its early stages. Rich said the experiments need to be performed in mouse models and eventually in people.
In addition, the researchers noted that this treatment could be effective against another tick-borne disease known as babesiosis, a malaria-like infection.
“This has the potential to kill two birds with one stone,” said Rich. This development makes the discovery even more enticing, opening a new potential path in the fight against vector-borne diseases.
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The study was published in Pathogens.
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