Borrelia burgdorferi persists in the brain in chronic lyme neuroborreliosis and may be associated with Alzheimer disease
Abstract
The cause, or causes, of the vast majority of Alzheimer's disease cases are unknown. A number of contributing factors have been postulated, including infection. It has long been known that the spirochete Treponema pallidum, which is the infective agent for syphilis, can in its late stages cause dementia, chronic inflammation, cortical atrophy and amyloid deposition. Spirochetes of unidentified types and strains have previously been observed in the blood, CSF and brain of 14 AD patients tested and absent in 13 controls. In three of these AD cases spirochetes were grown in a medium selective for Borrelia burgdorferi. In the present study, the phylogenetic analysis of these spirochetes was made. Positive identification of the agent as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto was based on genetic and molecular analyses. Borrelia antigens and genes were co-localized with beta-amyloid deposits in these AD cases. The data indicate that Borrelia burgdorferi may persist in the brain and be associated with amyloid plaques in AD. They suggest that these spirochetes, perhaps in an analogous fashion to Treponema pallidum, may contribute to dementia, cortical atrophy and amyloid deposition. Further in vitro and in vivo studies may bring more insight into the potential role of spirochetes in AD.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
B. burgdorferi form spirochete colonies that are similar in their appearance to senile plaques.
“B. burgdorferi form spirochete colonies that are similar in their appearance to senile plaques [63].”
From What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease? (2025) · cites this paper as [63]
Cites
Staging of Alzheimer-Related Cortical Destruction
Braak, H., Braak, E., & Bohl, J. (2008) · European Neurology · doi:10.1159/000116984 · Cited by 836 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The neuropathological assessment of the severity of cortical involvement was also made following Braak and Braak criteria [4].”
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Infectious Etiology of Alzheimer’s Disease
Sochocka, M., Zwolińska, K., & Leszek, J. (2017) · Current Neuropharmacology · doi:10.2174/1570159x15666170313122937 · Cited by 399 · see citing works
Ilievski, V., Zuchowska, P. K., Green, S. J., Toth, P. T., Ragozzino, M. E., Le, K., Aljewari, H. W., O’Brien-Simpson, N. M., Reynolds, E. C., & Watanabe, K. (2018) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0204941 · Cited by 372 · see citing works
Harris, S. A., & Harris, E. A. (2015) · Journal of Alzheimer's Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-142853 · Cited by 279 · see citing works
Periodontal microorganisms and Alzheimer disease – A causative relationship?
Jungbauer, G., Stähli, A., Zhu, X., Auber Alberi, L., Sculean, A., & Eick, S. (2022) · Periodontology 2000 · doi:10.1111/prd.12429 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Immunohistological detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae in the Alzheimer's disease brain
Hammond, C. J., Hallock, L. R., Howanski, R. J., Appelt, D. M., Little, C. S., & Balin, B. J. (2010) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/1471-2202-11-121 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Infectious agents and Alzheimer's disease
Piekut, T., Hurła, M., Banaszek, N., Szejn, P., Dorszewska, J., Kozubski, W., & Prendecki, M. (2022) · Journal of Integrative Neuroscience · doi:10.31083/j.jin2102073 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Patrick, K. L., Bell, S. L., Weindel, C. G., & Watson, R. O. (2019) · Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00138 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Vojtechova, I., Machacek, T., Kristofikova, Z., Stuchlik, A., & Petrasek, T. (2022) · PLOS Pathogens · doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1010929 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Staging Neurodegenerative Disorders: Structural, Regional, Biomarker, and Functional Progressions
Archer, T., Kostrzewa, R. M., Beninger, R. J., & Palomo, T. (2011) · Neurotoxicity Research · doi:10.1007/s12640-010-9190-2 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease?
Brutkiewicz, R. R., Cao, W., Morgan, D., Reis, R. S. D., Suryadevara, V., Willette, A. A., Willette, S. A., Wyatt-Johnson, S. K., & Duggan, M. R. (2025) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2025.05.009 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Miklossy, J., Khalili, K., Gern, L., Ericson, R. L., Darekar, P., Bolle, L., Hurlimann, J., & Paster, B. J.
- Affiliations
- University Institute of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, University Medical School (CHUV), 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland. and University of British Columbia, Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Temple University (US)
- University of Neuchâtel (CH)
- The Forsyth Institute (US)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2005-01-10
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 639-649
- ISSN
- 1387-2877 (ISSN-L)
- 1875-8908
- OpenAlex
- W2170025328
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 2.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Alzheimer s Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Parasitology › Vector-borne infectious diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Syphilis Diagnosis and Treatment
- Keywords
- Borrelia burgdorferi, neuroborreliosis
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Atrophy, Base Sequence, Brain, Cerebral Cortex, Chronic Disease, Frontal Lobe, Genotype, Humans, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Spirochaetales, Blotting, Western, Polymerase Chain Reaction, In Situ Hybridization, DNA Primers, Lyme Neuroborreliosis, Borrelia burgdorferi
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
