Quirky Lyme Disease Bacteria: Unlike Most Organisms, They Don’t Need Iron, but Crave Manganese

Quirky Lyme Disease Bacteria: Unlike Most Organisms, They Don’t Need Iron, but Crave Manganese

Mar. 21, 2013 — Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease — unlike any other known organism — can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria substitute manganese to make an essential enzyme, thus eluding immune system defenses that protect the body by starving pathogens of iron.  To cause disease, Borrelia burgdorferi requires unusually high levels of manganese, scientists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Texas reported.  Read more.

Go to International Lyme and Associated Disease Society to find out more about tick borne diseases.