• Corpus ID: 16355880

In Vitro Effectiveness of Samento and Banderol Herbal Extracts on the Different Morphological Forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi by

@inproceedings{Datar2010InVE,
  title={In Vitro Effectiveness of Samento and Banderol Herbal Extracts on the Different Morphological Forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi by},
  author={Akshita Datar and Navroop Kaur and Seema Patel and David F. Luecke and Eva Sapi},
  year={2010}
}

• A. Datar, Navroop Kaur, +2 authors E. Sapi
• Published 2010
• Biology

A tick-borne, multisystemic disease, Lyme borreliosis caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has grown into a major public health problem during the last 10 years. The primary treatment for chronic Lyme disease is administration of various antibiotics. However, relapse often occurs when antibiotic treatment is discontinued. One possible explanation for this is that B. burgdorferi become resistant to antibiotic treatment, by converting from their vegetative spirochete form into different round bodies and/or into biofilmlike colonies. There is an urgent need to find novel therapeutic agents that can eliminate all these different morphologies of B. burgdorferi. In this study, two herbal extracts, Samento and Banderol, as well as doxycycline (one of the primary antibiotics for Lyme disease treatment) were tested for their in vitro effectiveness on several of the different morphological forms of B. burgdorferi (spirochetes, round bodies, and biofilmlike colonies) using fluorescent, darkfield microscopic, and BacLight viability staining methods. Our results demonstrated that both herbal agents, but not doxycycline, had very significant effects on all forms of B. burgdorferi, especially when used in combination, suggesting that herbal agents could provide an effective therapeutic approach for Lyme disease patients. Borrelia burgdorferi, the primary causative agent of Lyme disease, is a spirochetal bacterium that can adopt different inactive forms, such as cystic and granular forms (round bodies), as well as colonylike aggregates both in vivo and in vitro, in the presence of unfavorable conditions such as exposure to the antibiotics commonly used for treating Lyme borreliosis. 1-4 Unfortunately, when B. burgdorferi is in these inactive forms, conventional antibiotic therapy will not destroy the bacteria. 3 Still to date, the frontline treatment for Lyme disease is administration of pharmaceutical antibiotics such as doxycycline, minocycline, clarithromycin, penicillin G, and ceftriaxone. 4,5 Many studies have shown that in spite of continued and high-dose antibiotic therapy, chronic Lyme disease is not treated successfully in many cases. 6 Also, in the absence of ongoing antibiotic treatment, relapse is common. 7,8 This means that even after antibiotic treatment, the host immunity fails to prevent recurrence. 8 One possible explanation for this clinical observation is the presence of different morphological forms of B. burgdorferi, which mayprotect it from the antibacterial therapy. Soon after treatment, relapse is observed, most likely because the B. burgdorferi can revert to the spirochetal form. Furthermore, the cost of antibiotic treatment, especially when administered intravenously, is substantial. Antibiotic therapy may also cause multiple undesirable side effects. 9 Thus, there is an urgent need for novel, more efficient, and more cost-effective treatment approaches that can efficiently eliminate all forms of B. burgdorferi. There is an alternative clinical treatment option gaining wide use, called Cowden Condensed Support Program, that utilizes several herbal extracts designed to eliminate microbes in Lyme disease patients. Richard Horowitz, MD, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Educational Foundation (ILADEF), has prescribed this protocol for over 2000 of his patient and reports that it has been effective for more than 70% of them. The two herbal agents from the Cowden Condensed Support Program selected for this study are Samento (a pentacyclic chemotype of Cat's Claw [Uncaria tomentosa] that does not contain tetracyclic oxindole alkaloids), with reported antibacterial and antiviral properties, and Banderol (Otoba sp.), known to have antibacterial, antiprotozoal and anti-inflammatory effects. 10-12 Both herbal agents are used during the first two months of Cowden Condensed Support Program, then in rotation with other antimicrobials for the duration of this 6-month protocol. In this study, we evaluated these natural antimicrobial herbal extracts as well as doxycycline (one of the primary pharmaceutical antibiotics for Lyme disease treatment) for their potential effects on the different forms of B. burgdorferi. The infectious B31strain of B. burgdorferi used in this study, obtained from American Type Tissue Collection(ATCC# 35210), was culturedin 5% CO2 at 34 oC, in Barbour–Stoener–Kelly H (BSK H) medium supplemented with 6% rabbit serum (Sigma, St. Louis, Missouri) to midlogarithmic stage (2 × 107 cells/ml). Samento and Banderol were obtained from Nutramedix LLC (Jupiter, Florida). Doxycycline was obtained from Sigma. A wide range of concentrations of Samento and Banderol were initially tested to determine the effective concentrations (1:100– 1:1000 dilutions). For doxycycline, a concentration 10× higher than the reported minimum bactericidal concentration (250 μg/ml) was used. 13 Triplicate test tubes containing BSK H medium, with and without the appropriately diluted antimicrobial agents, were inoculated with a final density of 5 × 106 cells/ml of the test organism. Direct cell counting methods with Petroff-Hausser counting chambers and morphological studies using fluorescent and darkfield microscopic techniques, as well as LIVE/DEAD BacLight Bacterial Viability Assay (Life Technologies Corp, Carlsbad, California), were utilized to assess the effect of the antimicrobial agents. For statistical analyses, one sample paired T-test was performed using NCSS statistical software (NCSS LLC, Kaysville, Utah). Samento & Banderol Herbal Extracts