# Epidemiology of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome

> **NIH NIH P01** · TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON · 2024 · $348,167

## Abstract

ABSTRACT: Project 1, The Epidemiology of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome
A proportion of early Lyme disease patients who have been treated with standard antibiotic regimens
experience persistent ill health for weeks to months, a condition known as Post Treatment Lyme Disease
Syndrome or “PTLDS”. The biologic basis for persistent Lyme disease remains to be described. The
overarching goal of our Program Project proposal is to generate fundamental knowledge about recovery from
Lyme disease, a growing human health problem worldwide, and better understand the mechanisms of
progression to PTLDS. In this epidemiological Project 1, we shall determine PTLDS incidence through a
prospective standardized assessment of a large patient cohort at the start of treatment for early Lyme disease.
We are particularly interested in the role of coinfections as potential factors in the development of PTLDS:
there are 4 other zoonotic agents transmitted by deer ticks, as well as flea or mosquito-borne infections in
northeastern U.S. sites, and thus Lyme disease cases may be concurrently or sequentially exposed to these
other infections. We shall re-examine pre-morbidity or concurrent clinical risk factors as a predictor for PTLDS.
Finally, we shall estimate the burden of PTLDS, seeking to place its public health importance into context of
other chronic disease in the study sites. This Project leverages the acute (early) Lyme disease enrollments
across a large study network of our Program Project, and complements this major effort with a serological
survey based in long-term tick borne disease study sites in coastal New England communities. Results from
our questionnaires and coinfection studies, framed by the analyses of all samples by the Diagnostic Core, will
help inform the findings of Project 2 (host immune dysregulation and autoantibodies), which in turn will place
premorbid or other risk associations of PTLDS into context. Ultimately, the findings from the proposed
epidemiological project may contribute to modalities for preventing, treating, and reducing the public health
burden of PTLDS.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10862291
- **Project number:** 1P01AI181934-01
- **Recipient organization:** TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Sam R Telford
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $348,167
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-05 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10862291

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10862291, Epidemiology of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (1P01AI181934-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10862291. Licensed CC0.

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