Dr. Randy Wymore looks for scientific evidence for the cause of Morgellons disease. He volunteers as director of research for the Morgellons Foundation.

In the word of bizarre symptoms that mark Morgellons disease, patients speculate about how they got it.

An athletic young swimmer who trained in murky bay waters wonders if that is the cause of symptoms. A patient living near a marsh speculates that contaminated dust from dredging is to blame. Others suspect a link to Lyme disease. Whatever the cause, they are sick and do not know why.

Morgellons disease, a little-known and often discounted illness, lacks the solid scientific data needed to point to a definitive cause.

That soon may change as Randy S. Wymore, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology, looks for answers. He is taking on the research challenge as volunteer director of research for the Morgellons Research Foundation.

According to the foundation, the disease began to appear in 2002. Patients complain of itching and feeling like bugs are crawling on their skin, stinging and biting. Many suffer from fatigue, or have trouble concentrating. Even more horrifying, their skin often develops blistering lesions that shed black seed-like particles, and sprout colored, fibrous filaments.

Neurological symptoms include numbness, tingling, itching, burning, or peripheral neuropathy. Sufferers sometimes are diagnosed with delusions of parasitosis (a belief that they have parasites) by skeptical doctors who have no solid scientific data that Morgellons Disease is real. Treatment may consist of saying, “Just don’t scratch it.”

“Health care providers are shooting in the dark as to how to treat it. Antibiotics seem to help some, but if they are stopped the symptoms come back,” Wymore says. In coordinating research efforts, he sees a research challenge and a chance to help. “I am doing this partly from scientific curiosity, but also with real empathy toward sufferers.”

The foundation has registered approximately 2,500 families worldwide. Clusters of sufferers are located in Texas, California and Florida. Wymore says Oklahoma has at least a dozen possible cases.

Questions surround Morgellons. Is it a real disease, and if so, what causes it? Is it one disease, or a complex syndrome?

“We are keeping every possible cause open for examination. It could be viral, parasitic, fungal, bacterial, or environmental contamination. We just do not know. There is not enough evidence,” Wymore says. He will put together a scientific advisory board, and hopes to interest other researchers in unraveling the medical mystery.

To find the cause, he will look first for any new or unusual bacteria. Shed materials from patients will be analyzed for unusual microbial species by amplifying any non-human DNA. Wymore says he will use PCR to amplify DNA, analyze the sequence and get an idea what kind of microorganism, if any, exist.

If no organism emerges, he will look for a viral cause. Wymore says this initial investigation will attempt to establish a rationale for more involved studies. After approval by the Human Subjects Institutional Review Board, samples will come directly from patients in a clinical setting.

For more information: www.morgellons.org