Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Blood tests can detect antibodies to the bacteria, indicating current or past infection.
Arachidonic acid is an omega-6 fatty acid involved in inflammatory processes. Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia bacteria, triggers inflammation that may alter arachidonic acid levels.
Wojciech Łuczaj, Anna Moniuszko, Magdalena Rusak, Joanna Zajkowska, Sławomir Pancewicz, Elżbieta Skrzydlewska. Peroxidative metabolism of arachidonic acid in the course of Lyme arthritis. Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine (2015). https://www.aaem.pl/pdf-72304-9532?filename=Peroxidative+metabolism.pdf
Cortisol is a steroid hormone released in response to stress and inflammation. Lyme infection may stimulate cortisol production as part of the body’s immune and stress response to the bacteria.
Lars Brudin, Ingela Nilsson, Inga-Lill Björkholm, Agneta Hallengren, Pär Froste, MC, JE, IE, and PF. Mapping of hormones and cortisol responses in patients after Lyme neuroborreliosis. BMC Infectious Diseases (2010). https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2334-10-37
Kynurenine is produced from tryptophan catabolism and is involved in regulating immune function. Lyme-induced inflammation may shift tryptophan breakdown toward kynurenine production.
Kurt-Wolfram Sühs, Natalia Novoselova, Maike Kuhn, Lena Seegers, Volkhard Kaever, Kirsten Müller-Vahl, Corinna Trebst, Thomas Skripuletz, Martin Stangel, Frank Pessler. “Kynurenine Is a Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarker for Bacterial and Viral Central Nervous System Infections”. The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2019). https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/220/1/127/5307059
J. N. Khachaturian, K. A. Krause, R. C. Moeller, J. M. Belman, A. Halperin, D. J. Brenner. “Neuroactive kynurenines in Lyme borreliosis”. Journal of Neuroimmunology (1992). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1531156/
Ronny Wickström, Åsa Fowler, Michel Goiny, Vincent Millischer, Sofia Ygberg. “The Kynurenine Pathway is Differentially Activated in Children with Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Encephalitis”. Frontiers in Immunology (2021). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7913947/
