Lizards For Chronic Lyme Disease
Robert Lane, PhD, uncovered a curious quirk about Lyme disease back in 1998 and the black-legged ticks that carry it there: the infection rates for young ticks, while low, was three to four times higher than the rate in adult ticks.
Early experiments ruled out the possibility that antibodies produced by the lizard’s immune system were able to neutralize the Lyme disease bacteria.
The puzzle continued to interest Lane who found later that when young nymphal ticks feed on the fence lizards, the mysterious protein not only protects the lizard from infection — it actually leaches into the tick’s gut and kills the bacteria there. Additional lab tests showed that when infected nymphs fed on the lizards, and then metamorphosed into adult ticks, they were no longer infected.
