Antibody test may improve early Lyme disease diagnosis

Lyme disease. Getty/anakopa

By Olivia Bowthorpe

Antibodies that appear in patients with Lyme disease before the biomarkers used in current tests could provide a route to earlier diagnosis, researchers have said.

The study looked at antilipid antibodies - which target certain fats in cell membranes - which could highlight the infection earlier and identify a group of patients with symptoms that persist after treatment.

One of the antibodies seen to be raised early in Lyme disease infection also remained elevated in some people with post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD), which affects around 10% to 20% of patients.

There is currently no lab test to identify these patients, who continue to experience symptoms such as fatigue, pain and cognitive problems after receiving the standard three-week course of oral antibiotics to clear the infection.

A team led by Dr Peter Gwynne, assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, analysed blood samples from two biobanks of patients with acute Lyme disease, PTLD, or unaffected healthy volunteers.