Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Bertrand Guay | AFP | Getty Images

The race to improve detection

Nanotrap nanoparticles are being used to improve many areas of clinical diagnostics and cutting-edge research applications, including the testing of cancer, infectious-diseases and drug abuse. Source: Ceres Nanosciences

Dunlap said the company was inspired to create the test because they saw how dissatisfied the general public was with the current two-tiered testing for Lyme disease, the ELISA and western blot methods. In 2013, Virginia became the first state to require doctors treating patients with Lyme disease to disclose in a statement the inaccuracies with the current available testing before they are tested. "The two types of testing are certainly not perfect," said Dr. Paul Mead, chief of epidemiology and surveillance activity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said that the immune response to the infection may take four to six weeks to develop. Which means that people tested before four to six weeks may test negative for the infection when the antibodies haven't had enough time to develop. A proper diagnosis in the early stages could mean the difference between successfully treating the patient with an initial round of antibiotics or having them live with lingering effects of the disease for years. This is not the first urine antigen test on the market. For decades there have been many companies who have tried to use urine-based testing and have failed, Dr. Mead said. Past urine tests have failed because they were not concentrated enough and were unable to measure the small antigen amount that is present in the urine.



The hidden dangers of Lyme disease