Cyanobacteria, Lyme Disease, & ALS

Lyme Disease and ALS : Exposure to Blue Green Algae and Cyanobacteria

A 2014 Scientific American article unveils the possible relationship of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and the exposure to blue green algae (cyanobacteria) blooms in fresh water lakes and coastal waters. Researchers at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire are investigating whether inhalation of a neurotoxin (BMAA) produced by algae, increases the risk of later developing ALS. Cyanobacteria growing on the roots and seeds of Cycad trees, produce a neurotoxin known as BMAA which can cause motor neuron disease, although the mechanism of action is not known at this time. Researchers suggest that fish and shellfish from waters containing cyanobacteria may be the way that humans can ingest the toxin. Interestingly, the incidence of ALS is 10 – 25 times higher in patients living around Lake Mascoma, located in New Hampshire. Fertilizer and sewage pollutants may feed cyanobacteria blooms, and the BMAA toxin is then released into the air, and the human body may mistake it for the amino acid L-serine. This causes proteins to misfold and become dysfunctional. However, researchers are examining whether large doses of L-serine, may be able to out compete BMAA in the body, and hence prevent cell damage and disease.

We have long suspected that Lyme Disease is involved in the etiology of ALS, and that may still be the case. Afterall, ticks are widely known to inhabit coastal areas of the northeast, so it may very well be that in these severe neurological disease patients, there is more than one infectious culprit.

The new technique of DNA sequencing will help elucidate the unknown organisms in a patient, so that more accurate treatment can be implemented. Clearly, the health outcomes from utilizing this advanced technology are only on the horizon, but I am hopeful that we are gaining momentum in understanding the etiologies of chronic neurodegenerative disease.