2 Innovative Pilot Lyme Disease Studies

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(*Submitted by CFA member, JoAnne R.)

Innovative Research Will Improve Understanding of Lyme and Other

Tick-Borne Diseases

WILTON, Conn., Dec. 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Research Fund

for Tick-Borne Diseases, Inc. (NRFTD) announced today it will fund

two innovative pilot studies designed to advance scientific

understanding of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. The

studies will focus on the physical structure and genetic makeup of

two different tick-borne bacteria, and will yield important

information concerning their ability to establish infection and

cause disease in human hosts.

" These projects will utilize cutting-edge laboratory techniques to

help develop our understanding of two important human pathogens, "

said Leo J. Shea, III, Ph.D., Chairman of the NRFTD Board of

Directors. " The data yielded will be of use to scientists in

multiple disciplines associated with tick-borne diseases, and will

drive further important laboratory and clinical research related to

these organisms. "

Nikhat Parveen, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Microbiology and

Molecular Genetics at the New Jersey Medical School, University of

Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey) will use her award moneys to

study an outer surface protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, the

bacterium that causes Lyme disease. This protein, known as OspC, is

thought to play a key role during early Lyme infection. However,

some strains of B. burgdorferi contain a defective OspC gene and

fail to cause infection in mammals. By studying the wide variation

in OspC expression among different strains of the bacterium, Parveen

will attempt to tease out the specific factors that promote its

ability to infect and disseminate through human tissues. This work

will also have implications for improved diagnostic testing and

vaccine development for Lyme disease.

Kurtti, Ph.D. (Professor of Entomology at the

University of Minnesota) will investigate how the parasite Anaplasma

phagocytophilum, which invades certain white blood cells when

transmitted to humans, survives the drastic environmental

differences between warm-blooded mammals and cold-blooded ticks.

Using a new genomic technology called microarray analysis, Kurtti

will determine the specific genes that become active depending on

whether the bacterium is in tick or human cells. The results of this

work will provide crucial supplemental information to the recently

completed but unannotated Anaplasma genome, and will advance current

understanding of the bacterium's ability to evade the immune

response of its human host. Further, it will likely establish

microarray analysis as an important new technology for studying

other bacterial pathogens transmitted by ticks.

Recognizing the pressing need to understand and cure tick-borne

diseases, the NRFTD and its team of scientific advisors developed an

expedited funding initiative based on rigorous scientific standards

designed to attract the best researchers in the world. In this

initial round of funding, the organization received an impressive

selection of grant applications from well-respected investigators in

the United States, Europe and Australia. With as many as half of all

households affected by Lyme in some endemic areas, and with Lyme

case reports rising dramatically, the need to understand tick-borne

disease has never been greater.

About the National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases, Inc.

The NRFTD is a nonprofit organization devoted to funding scientific

research in the rapidly expanding field of tick-borne diseases. It

aims to advance scientific understanding of these complicated

infections by sponsoring innovative research at premier institutions

throughout the world.

The NRFTD was founded in 1999 to address the complex and critical

research questions raised by thousands of patients afflicted with

emerging tick-borne diseases, including Lyme disease, relapsing

fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, bartonella and ehrlichiosis. The

need for answers has grown markedly as Lyme disease continues to

spread throughout the country and as other tick-borne infections

have been recognized as public health threats.

CONTACT: Bokhour of NRFTD, , ybokhour@...

Website: http://www.nrftd.org/