Research from Northwestern University reveals that persistent symptoms following Lyme disease treatment may originate from remnants of the Borrelia burgdorferi cell wall. These remnants can cause an unnecessary immune response, similar to theories surrounding long COVID-19. A study found that while antibiotics quickly remove bacterial cell wall material, components like peptidoglycan from Lyme can persist in the body for weeks to months, contributing to ongoing symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive challenges, and joint pain, affecting around 14% of treated patients.
Symptoms that persist long after Lyme disease is treated are not uncommon - a 2022 study found that 14 percent of patients who were diagnosed and treated early with antibiotic therapy would still develop Post Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD).
The body may be responding to remnants of the Borrelia burgdorferi cell wall, which breaks down during treatment yet lingers in the liver, causing persistent symptoms.
Lyme and long COVID-19 are clearly vastly different diseases, but it's possible that they share a more general mechanism of inappropriate inflammation caused by remnants of a previous infection.
The maladaptive response is a product of an infection, but perhaps not necessarily an active one in all cases.
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