Lyme culprit targeted

Antibiotic could relieve lingering Lyme disease ailments, study says

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.