Plaques of Alzheimer’s disease originate from cysts of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete
Summary
Here is hypothesized a truly revolutionary notion that rounded cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi are the root cause of the rounded structures called plaques in the Alzheimer brain. Rounded ‘‘plaques’ in high density in brain tissue are emblematic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Plaques may be conceptualized as rounded ‘‘pock mark-like’’ areas of brain tissue injury. In this century, in brain tissue of AD, plaques are Amyloid Plaques according to the most up to date textbooks. In the last century, however, Dr. Alois Alzheimer did not require amyloid as the pathogenesis for either the disease or for the origin of its plaques. Surely, amyloid is an event in AD, but it may not be the primal cause of AD. Indeed in plaques, amyloid is regularly represented by the ‘‘congophilic core’’ structure which is so named because the waxy amyloid material binds the congo red stain and is congophilic. However an accepted subset of plaques in AD is devoid of a congophilic amyloid core region (these plaques ‘‘cotton wool’’ type plaques, lack a central congophilic core structure). Furthermore, there is ‘‘plaque diversity’’ in Alzheimer’s; small, medium and large plaques parallel variable cystic diameters for Borrelia burgdorferi.