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.
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.
Kynurenine is produced from tryptophan catabolism and is involved in regulating immune function. Lyme-induced inflammation may shift tryptophan breakdown toward kynurenine production.
References
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/220/1/127/5307059J. 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/