Chronic Lyme disease can be an autoimmune condition

This paper just published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity highlights an important principal in clinical practice: even when an acute infection has been cleared by antimicrobial therapy, a chronic autoimmune disorder can develop due to immune dysregulation. The authors begin by noting:

"Some Lyme disease patients report debilitating chronic symptoms of pain, fatigue, and cognitive deficits despite recommended courses of antibiotic treatment. The mechanisms responsible for these symptoms, collectively referred to as post-Lyme disease syndrome (PLS) or chronic Lyme disease, remain unclear. We investigated the presence of immune system abnormalities in PLS by assessing the levels of antibodies to neural proteins in patients and controls."

Their data showed that...

"Anti-neural antibody reactivity was found to be significantly higher in the PLS group than in the post-Lyme healthy and normal healthy groups."

Their conclusion:

"The results provide evidence for the existence of a differential immune system response in PLS, offering new clues about the etiopathogenesis of the disease that may prove useful in devising more effective treatment strategies."

Indeed. This is but one example of chronic conditions following acute infections, and why functional medicine practitioners are concerned with objectively assessing immune system integrity through cytokine analysis, white blood cell subset populations, vitamin D sufficiency, etc.