Research

Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a tick-borne infectious disease with variable symptoms. The most common manifestation of LB is an expanding rash on the skin but frequently arthritic or neurological and occasionally cardiac or ocular symptoms are seen.

Lyme borreliosis (LB), also known as Lyme disease, is emerging as a serious tick- borne illness across Canada. More than three decades of research on LB in North America and Europe have provided a large, complex body of research involving well-documented difficulties at several levels.

Pathogenic spirochetes are bacteria that cause a number of emerging and re-emerging diseases worldwide, including syphilis, leptospirosis, relapsing fever, and Lyme borreliosis

Spirochetes causing Lyme borreliosis are obligate parasites that can only be found in a tick vector or a vertebrate host. The ability to survive in these two disparate environments requires up and downregulation of specific genes by regulatory circuits that remain largely obscure.

Persistent infection by pathogenic organisms requires effective strategies for the defense of these organisms against the host immune response.