Lyme culprit targeted
Scientists have found an antibiotic that kills the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and might be effective for the 20% of patients with lingering symptoms that don’t respond to other treatments, a Stanford Medicine study shows.
Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, said the intravenous drug azlocillin was tested in mice. Rajadas is the senior author of the study published March 2 by Scientific Reports.
Azlocillin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but it is not available for clinical use in the United States. Researchers are working with a company to develop an oral form of the drug and plan to conduct a clinical trial.