Spirochetal cyst forms in neurodegenerative
disorders, . . . hiding in plain sight
Alan B. MacDonald *
St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, Department of Pathology, 50 Rte
25 A, Smithtown, NY 11787, USA
Received 12 March 2006; accepted 4 April 2006
Summary Here is proposed a hypothesis that a completely unsuspected
biology exists for pathogenic spirochetes,
namely that the cystic spirochetal forms (long thought to be static and
resting or just a dormant cohort) actually are
capable of killing mammalian host cells. At least two ‘‘lethal’’ scenarios
are proposed; first, the host cell destruction
from the ‘‘inside out’’ by small caliber cystic forms invading the host cell
cytoplasm, and second host cell destruction
by engulfment of entire host cells by large caliber cystic spirochetal forms.
Conventional thinking about spirochetal cyst forms is divided between two
polar spheres of influence; one a
majority community that completely denies the existence of spirochetal
cyst forms, and a second group of
academically persecuted individuals who accepts the precepts of such
antebellum scientists as Schaudinn,
Hoffman, Dutton, Levaditi, Balfour, Fantham, Noguchi, McDonough,
Hindle, Steiner, Ingraham, Coutts, Hampp,
Warthin, Ovcinnikov, and Delamater. Microscopic images of cystic
spirochetes are difficult to ignore, but as has
been the case in this century, academic ‘‘endowments’’ have nearly
expunged all cystic spirochetal image data
from the current textbook versions of what is the truth about the
spirochetaceae. If the image database from the
last century is obliterated; many opportunities to diagnose will be lost.
Variously sized cystic spirochetal profiles
within diseased nerve cells explain the following structures: Lewy body of
Parkinson’s disease, Pick body, ALS
spherical body, Alzheimer plaque. Borrelia infection is therefore a
unifying concept to explain diverse
neurodegenerative diseases, based not entirely on a corkscrew shaped
profile in diseased tissue, but based on
small, medium and large caliber rounded cystic profiles derived from
pathogenic spirochetes which are . . . ‘‘hiding
in plain sight’’.
c 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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