Researchers from the Medical University of Bialystok are looking for more accurate methods of diagnosing tick-borne diseases
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Researchers at the Medical University of Bialystok will look for substances that will help diagnose tick-borne diseases more accurately. The goal is to help select individual, more precise methods of treatment for patients.
The research project is planned for five years; it will be carried out by Dr. Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska and her colleagues from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections and the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry of the Medical University of Bialystok. The research grant in the amount of over PLN 1.6 million has been awarded by the National Science Centre.
"The objective of the project is to find substances that would allow to distinguish between diseases with similar symptoms and clinical course (...) An example is the multiform picture of Lyme disease. This is our greatest problem, we hospitalise patients for various reasons under the banner of Lyme disease" - says Dr. Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska.
The test subjects will be selected patients from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections of the Medical University of Bialystok - people who have been bitten by ticks. In their blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid and skin tissues (in the place of erythema) doctors will identify metabolites that are potential biomarkers of particular tick-borne diseases. They are also interested in compounds that allow to distinguish between diseases with similar symptoms, but different causes. Moniuszko-Malinowska emphasises that this is important because a patient may be infected with several pathogens at the same time, which makes diagnosis and treatment difficult.
Doctors emphasize that the course of tick-borne diseases can be very serious, and there may be complications - neurological or even mental ones, especially in the case of tick-borne encephalitis.
Doctors point out that the results of patients` tests are often misinterpreted, and the patients themselves resort to alternative treatments. Dr. Moniuszko-Malinowska talks about a patient who was taking several different antibiotics, antifungal and antiparasitic drugs for several months as part of alternative therapy. She ended up destroying her bacterial flora of the intestine, damaging her liver and causing cardiological problems. "We want to prevent such situations and diagnose these diseases as accurately as possible" - she stresses.
She adds that sometimes there are also absurdities and mistakes in diagnoses. Test results sometimes suggest Lyme disease, but the symptoms are caused by other diseases, such as autoimmune disorders. Other tests would show that, if they were performed.
"This only shows the need for precise diagnosis. We are fighting with the attribution of all possible symptoms to Lyme disease. That is why we always diagnose patients comprehensively" - says Moniuszko-Malinowska. She adds that Lyme disease can be treated successfully if it is correctly diagnosed.
Doctors already have preliminary results of research on Lyme arthritis. "It turns out that with this disease, completely different substances are released than in rheumatoid arthritis - and we also have such patients. So it`s not like we`re starting our research from scratch. We already have promising results of pilot studies, which is why we have decided to continue this research direction" - she adds.
Doctors will pay particular attention project to foresters who are particularly exposed to tick-borne diseases because of their profession.
"We are wondering why the majority of foresters have high levels of anti-Borrelia burgdorferi antibodies, and often have no symptoms. And people who have low antibodies, or those that are difficult to interpret - suffer from a lot of different ailments" - says Moniuszko-Malinowska.
She emphasises that this is the first such study. "We want to see if there is a difference between people who get bitten by ticks due to their profession and people bitten accidentally" - says Moniuszko-Malinowska.
The Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections of the Medical University of Bialystok treats about 500-600 Lyme disease patients per year, and the clinic has at least a similar number of patients. There are also about 50-60 people with tick-borne encephalitis. Doctors also diagnose patients with less frequently occurring and more difficultly diagnosed diseases transmitted by ticks, for example anaplasmosis or human babesiosis. (PAP)
author: Izabela Próchnicka
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