Tick-borne diseases have risen rapidly across the United States over the past decade. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), tick-borne infections account for more than 75 percent of all vector-borne disease cases in the country. While Lyme disease is the most prevalent, cases of anaplasmosis and babesiosis are increasingly diagnosed.
Lyme disease and anaplasmosis are bacterial infections, and babesiosis is caused by a malaria-like parasite—Babesia protozoa—that attacks red blood cells. All three of these diseases can cause fatigue, malaise, fever, and muscle or joint pain. Babesiosis can also lead to anemia, red blood cell breakdown, and jaundice.
“Babesiosis is rarer than Lyme disease, and it is also more difficult to treat,” said infectious disease physician Peter Hyson, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine. “The medicines we currently have for babesiosis aren’t very effective, and people who are elderly or immunocompromised often relapse after treatment.”
“If the drugs I am studying are found to be effective at treating babesiosis, they could become the standard of care going forward.” — Peter Hyson, M.D.
To advance babesiosis research and develop more effective medications, the NIH granted a K08 award to Dr. Hyson. A K08 award provides five years of salary support and protected time for early-career clinician-scientists to develop independent research programs.
Hyson’s K08 research will investigate preclinical drug development on a series of compounds that are thought to inhibit babesia protein synthesis. He will seek to identify drug targets and measure the likelihood of drug resistance emerging. Hyson will work closely with his mentor, Chris Huston, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease, and he will take courses in molecular parasitology to prepare for a career as an independent scientist.
“As a doctor and as a dad, I’m concerned about tick-borne diseases,” Hyson said. “If the drugs I am studying are found to be effective at treating babesiosis, they could become the standard of care going forward.”
Research like this has contributed to the University of Vermont’s designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an R1 institution, placing it in the top tier of research universities in the U.S.
