Lyme disease, potential plague of the 21st century detection problems resolved by imaging with the Bradford Variable Projection High Resolution Microscope

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Jan, 2005 by Robert W. Bradford, Henry W. Allen

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bradford Microscopy of a cyst form developed inside a B-cell, without the clustered spiral form of the spirochete. See Photo 5. [c] BRI 2004 With clustered spiral form of spirochete, see Photo 5A. [c] BRI 2004

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bradford Microscopy of a cyst form inside a basophil. See Photo 6. [c] BRI 2004

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bradford Microscopy of a cyst form inside an eosinophil. See photo 7. [c] BRI 2004

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Scanning electron microscopy of blebs on spirochete membrane. See Photo 8.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The cell division time of Bb is very long compared to other bacteria. A typical cell wall reproduction time for Streptococcus or Staphylococcus is less than 20 minutes, while the total reproduction time of Bb is from 12-24 hours. Most antibiotics inhibit the formation of cell walls and are effective only when the bacteria are dividing with the formation of new cell wall. With the slow replication time of Bb, an antibiotic would have to be present 24 hours a day for one year and six months to be present during the cell wall reproduction period.

There are basically two mechanisms by which Bb can survive within the host and remain for long periods of time, unknown by the victim. Because of these processes, a person infected by Bb can remain unsymptomatic for long periods of time and then suddenly, without warning, begin to experience symptoms once again. One of these mechanisms involves the invasion of tissues by the spirochete. The tip of the organism has the ability to bind to cells, spin and twirl until it stimulates the cells own enzymes to digest a part of the membrane, finally allowing entry. Once inside, the spirochete results in either the death of the cell or takes up residency within. It may lie dormant for years, protected from both the immune system and the action of antibiotics.

Experiments have shown that if a culture of Bb is placed under conditions of nutrient deprivation or starvation, it senses that it cannot survive in a metabolically active state and generates what are known as "cysts" or small sacs attached to the organism by slender threads. Cysts contain immature spirochetes in a metabolically inactive form. Eventually they break off from the parent body and either remain lodged in tissues or enter the blood where they are sensed as foreign antigens by eosinophils (a type of WBC) and phagocytized. Eosinophils release granules of positively charged basic protein, attaching to the normally negative surface of cells. They attempt to destroy the invading foreign bodies (cysts) but have little success. See Photo 9.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When a spirochete attacks a B-cell, it attaches the tip to the surface, spins and twirls until it enters, then multiplies inside until the B-cell bursts. Some of them become coated with fragments of B-cell membrane and escape detection by the immune system by masquerading as a B-cell. Most of the antigenic proteins in Bb (that in other bacteria mark the microorganism for destruction by the immune system) are found on the inside of the inner membrane where they cannot contact those WBC that detect invaders.