Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24218102›Full record

ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2014

Elevated levels of IL-23 in a subset of patients with post-lyme disease symptoms following erythema migrans.

Klemen Strle, Daša Stupica, Elise E Drouin, Allen C Steere, Franc Strle

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
61citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
6.3field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

61 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Guideline
  2. Guideline
  3. Lyme borreliosis.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. The peptidoglycan ofScience translational medicine · 2025
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Suppression of host humoral immunity byInfection and immunity · 2024
    Article
  14. Current and emerging approaches for eliminatingFrontiers in microbiology · 2024
    Review
  15. Observational
  16. Review
  17. Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease and Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Klemen StrleCenter for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Daša Stupica
Elise E Drouin
Allen C Steere
Franc Strle
Harvard University · USLjubljana University Medical Centre · SIMassachusetts General Hospital · US

Funding

Borrelia burgdorferi-Induced Autoimmunity in Lyme DiseaseR01AI101175 · NIAID · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI STEERE, ALLEN C · 2013 to 2021
$3.6M
Autoimmunity to ECGF in Lyme disease and its post-infectious syndromesR56AI101175 · NIAID · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI STEERE, ALLEN C · 2012 to 2012
$601k
Defining Microbial and Host Factors in Innate Immune Responses in Lyme ArthritisK01AR062098 · NIAMS · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI STRLE, KLEMEN · 2012 to 2014
$398k
NIAID NIH HHS AI-101175NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI101175NIAID NIH HHS R56 AI101175NIAMS NIH HHS K01 AR062098NIAMS NIH HHS K01AR062098
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe causes of post-Lyme disease symptoms are unclear. Herein, we investigated whether specific immune responses were correlated with such symptoms.

methodsThe levels of 23 cytokines and chemokines, representative of innate and adaptive immune responses, were assessed in sera from 86 antibiotic-treated European patients with erythema migrans, 45 with post-Lyme symptoms and 41 without symptoms, who were evaluated prior to treatment and 2, 6, and 12 months thereafter.

resultsAt study entry, significant differences between groups were observed for the type 1 helper T cell (TH1)-associated chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10, which were associated with negative Borrelia cultures, and the type 17 helper T cell (TH17)-associated cytokine interleukin 23 (IL-23), which was associated with positive cultures and the development of post-Lyme symptoms (P ≤ .02). Moreover, of the 41 patients with detectable IL-23 levels, 25 (61%) developed post-Lyme symptoms, and all 7 with IL-23 levels ≥ 230 ng/mL had such symptoms. Furthermore, antibody responses to the ECGF autoantigen were more common in patients with post-Lyme symptoms (P = .07) and were correlated directly with IL-23 levels (P = .02). Despite the presence of post-Lyme symptoms, all posttreatment culture results were negative, antiborrelial antibody responses declined, and there were no objective signs of disseminated disease, suggesting that spirochetal eradication had occurred with treatment in all patients.

conclusionsHigh TH1-associated responses correlated with more effective immune-mediated spirochetal killing, whereas high TH17-associated immune responses, often accompanied by autoantibodies, correlated with post-Lyme symptoms, providing a new paradigm for the study of postinfectious symptoms in a subset of patients with Lyme disease.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAgedAutoantibodiesErythema Chronicum MigransEuropeFemaleHumansInterleukin-23MaleMiddle AgedTh17 CellsTh1 CellsThymidine PhosphorylaseYoung AdultAutoantibodiesInterleukin-23Thymidine PhosphorylaseTYMP protein, humanIL-23inflammationLyme diseasepost–Lyme disease symptomsTH17

Identifiers

PMID24218102
PMCPMC3890340
OpenAlexW2125016621

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.