Dr. Yi-Pin Lin Awarded NIH Grant to Study Birds Carrying Lyme Disease

It has long been held that rodents are the main carriers and spreaders of Lyme disease bacteria in nature. When Dr. Yi-Pin Lin, Ph.D., MG15 (he/his), associate professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, and his colleagues recently discovered that wild birds carried Lyme disease bacterial strains that can infect humans and animals, they knew they had to dig deeper. 

The team found that thrush birds, including American Robins, can spread Lyme disease bacteria. “If it’s a rarely found bird with Lyme disease bacteria, we don’t need to worry too much, but American Robins are in everyone’s backyards,” says Dr. Lin.

Dr. Lin and his colleagues have been awarded a five-year, $4 million National Institute of Health (NIH) Research Grant (R01) to study how wild birds serve as hosts of the Lyme disease bacteria and birds’ immune responses to the pathogen. The research aims to develop more efficient prevention techniques to minimize the spread of Lyme disease from animals to humans. 

Tufts has long been involved in battling Lyme disease, with current and former faculty, staff, and students playing a role in first identifying the disease and the bacteria that causes it and developing diagnostic tests and a vaccine. Faculty from across Tufts’ schools collaboratively launched the Tufts University Lyme Disease Initiative in an effort to curb disease transmission. Over the last decade, Tufts faculty have also been the top recipients of NIH funding for Lyme disease research. Dr. Lin joined the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative this past February and is also involved with One Health, an interdisciplinary Tufts program that explores the relationships between human health, animal health, and the environment. 

Dr. Lin’s work with both initiatives focuses on the Reservoir-Targeting Approach, which involves researching how Lyme disease bacteria transmit between animals and humans and how to “target” the bacteria in animals to prevent the spread to humans.

As principal investigator of the new NIH study, Dr. Lin will work closely with three co-investigators: Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) at Columbia University, Dr. Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Medicine, and Cell Biology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Dr. Klemen Strle, Ph.D., assistant research professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Lin teamed up with Drs. Diuk-Wasser and Kolokotronis, on the original research, a National Science Foundation-funded grant, uncovering that wild birds can carry and spread the Lyme disease bacteria. Ticks can acquire Lyme disease bacteria from birds and then infect humans and animals (see publications in Royal Proc. B and PNAS Nexus).

“We have maintained a long-term collaboration with Dr. Lin from the previously funded study, where we found that some genotypes of Lyme disease bacteria commonly carried by birds can infect humans and pet animals, sparking up the idea of this study. We’re very excited to continue our fruitful collaboration with Dr. Lin,” says Dr. Diuk-Wasser.  

The team discovered that some Lyme disease bacterial genotypes can not only infect but persist in birds longer than other genotypes of these bacteria. Most animals develop an immune response that more quickly kills the bacteria. 

“Wild birds can carry Lyme disease bacteria but have been long overlooked for their roles in the Lyme disease bacterial infection cycle,” says Dr. Kolokotronis. “Birds have unique immune mechanisms to react to invading pathogens, different from mammals.”

“This was surprising that birds carry Borrelia genotypes that can infect humans or animals,” adds Dr. Lin. “This finding is important because if we can intervene in the transmission of the Lyme disease bacteria from reservoir animals, we can study the bird immune response and target prevention through birds. The grant is to study what immune response isn’t developing that lets them continue to carry the bacteria. My guess is more than complement and antibody responses.”

Dr. Lin continues, “We hope to identify a few immunological factors that determine the ability of wild birds to carry the Lyme disease bacteria, and therefore, target those immunological factors to reduce the ability of the Lyme disease bacteria to survive in birds.” 

“This study will boost Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative,” says Dr. Strle. “Understanding the immunomodulatory mechanisms of wild birds will inform reservoir targeting strategies which include birds, an important consideration for Lyme disease prevention.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere, with nearly half a million new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. The bacterium that causes Lyme disease is transmitted by a tick bite to the skin and can cause arthritis, carditis (inflammation of the heart), and neuroborreliosis (a disorder of the nervous system).

“My group is passionate about deciphering the intricate interactions between animals and pathogens, specifically when they lead to disease emergence and establishment in humans. I want to study what is happening in nature and see where I can use my expertise,” says Dr. Lin. “This grant will allow us to carry out these studies and continue my collaboration with Drs. Diuk-Wasser, Kolokotronis, and Strle. We are all very excited about working together to support this project.”