My journal articles
See my published journals articles on PubMed or on Google Scholar.
For further information on the link between spirochetes and Alzheimer’s Disease, please see the website – and journal articles – of Judith Miklossy.
My journal articles include:
Characterization of biofilm formation by Borrelia burgdorferi in vitro, Sapi E, Bastian SL, Mpoy CM, Scott S, Rattelle A, MacDonald A, et al. PLOS ONE, 2012, 7(10): e48277. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048277. Please see my teaching file on Biofilms of Borrelia burgdorferi which accompanies this article as well as some of my comments on how Biofilm Microbiology is distinct from Planktonic Microbiology. Please also see my brief statement on Biofilms of Borrelia burgdorferi In vitro, which includes an image showing the transition from Spiral [Planktonic] Borrelia to Granular (specialized shape shifted forms] of viable Borrelia Burgdorferi
Biofilms of Borrelia burgdorferi in Chronic Cutaneous Borreliosis. Authors’ reply. Sapi E, MacDonald Alan B., Eisendle K., M Hansgeorg M., Zelger B. Am J Clin Pathol. 2008 129. p.988-989.
In situ DNA hybridization study of granulovacuolar degeneration in human autopsy hippocampal neurons for Flagellin B transcriptomes of Borrelia burgdorferi. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, 2 (3) Supplement , Page S207, July 2006.
Cystic borrelia in Alzheimer’s disease and in non-dementia neuroborreliosis. Alan B. MacDonald. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, 2 (3), Supplement , Page S433, July 2006
Calcifying panniculitis with renal failure: a new management approach. Elamin EM, McDonald AB. Dermatology. 1996;192(2):156-9.
Clinical implications of delayed growth of the Lyme borreliosis spirochete, Borrelia burgdoreri (.pdf) Alan B. MacDonald, Bernard W. Berger, and Torn G. Schwan. Acta Tropica, 48(1991) 89-94
Gestational Lyme borreliosis. Implications for the fetus. Alan B. MacDonald. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 1989 Nov;15(4):657-77.
Interstitial cystitis and Borrelia burgdorferi. Schwan TG, MacDonald AB. Ann Intern Med. 1989 Sep 15;111(6):537.
Temporal arteritis associated with Borrelia infection. A case report. Pizzarello LD, MacDonald AB, Semlear R, DiLeo F, Berger B. J Clin Neuroophthalmol. 1989 Mar;9(1):3-6.
Concurrent Neocortical Borreliosis and Alzheimer’s Disease: Demonstration of a Spirochetal Cyst Form (.pdf) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 539, Lyme Disease and Related Disorders pages 468–470, August 1988.
Ambiguous serologies in active Lyme borreliosis. A. B. MacDonald. Journal of clinical neuro-ophthalmology. 1988, 8(2):79-80.
Use of an autologous antigen in the serologic testing of patients with erythema migrans of Lyme disease. Berger BW, MacDonald AB, Benach JL. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1988 Jun;18(6):1243-6.
Lyme disease. A neuro-ophthalmologic view. A. B. Macdonald. J Clin Neuroophthalmol. 1987 Dec;7(4):185-90.
Giant cell arteritis and Borrelia infection. A. B. Macdonald. J Clin Neuroophthalmol. 1987 Sep;7(3):180-1.
Stillbirth following maternal Lyme disease. MacDonald AB, Benach JL, Burgdorfer W. N Y State J Med. 1987 Nov;87(11):615-6.
Concurrent neocortical borreliosis and Alzheimer’s disease (.pdf)- A. B. Macdonald and J. M. Miranda. Human Pathology 1987 Jul;18(7):759-61.
Human fetal borreliosis, toxemia of pregnancy, and fetal death. A. B. Macdonald. Zentralbl Bakteriol Mikrobiol Hyg A. 1986 Dec;263(1-2):189-200.
Serological evidence for simultaneous occurrences of Lyme disease and babesiosis. Benach JL, Coleman JL, Habicht GS, MacDonald A, Grunwaldt E, Giron JA. J Infect Dis. 1985 Sep;152(3):473-7.
A case of crystal formation in bone marrow. Carter KJ, Jones JD, Mandel NS, Mandel GS, MacDonald AB. Clin Chem. 1984 Jul;30(7):1267-8.
Essays and Hypotheses
Find all draft versions of 6 papers published in Medical Hypothesis in this .pdf.
Alzheimer’s disease Braak Stage progressions: reexamined and redefined as Borrelia infection transmission through neural circuits. MacDonald AB. Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(5):1059-64. Epub 2006 Nov 17.
Alzheimer’s neuroborreliosis with trans-synaptic spread of infection and neurofibrillary tangles derived from intraneuronal spirochetes. A.B. MacDonald. Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(4):822-5. Epub 2006 Oct 20.
Plaques of Alzheimer’s disease originate from cysts of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete (.pdf) A.B. MacDonald. Medical Hypotheses 2006;67(3):592-600
A life cycle for Borrelia spirochetes? A.B. MacDonald. Medical Hypotheses. Volume 67, Issue 4 , 2006, Pages 810-818
Spirochetal cyst forms in neurodegenerative disorders,…hiding in plain sight. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(4):819-32. Epub 2006 Jul 7.
Transfection “Junk” DNA – a link to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease? A.B. MacDonald. Med Hypotheses. 2006;66(6):1140-1
Journal articles and papers by others
This is a collection of papers which I find especially fascinating.
On atypical and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi
Corkscrew shaped spirochetes are only one of the possible forms that Borrelia may assume. Cystic forms or Granular Forms (so called “coccoid “), L forms, “Bleb” forms and “Ring” forms also are present in tissues infected with Borrelia.
Persisting atypical and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi and local inflammation in Lyme Neuroborreliosis. Judith Miklossy, Sandor Kasas, Anne D Zurn, Sherman McCall, Sheng Yu1 and Patrick L McGeer. Journal of Neuroinflammation 2008, 5:40.
On the connections between Alzheimers and spirochetes
Alzheimer’s disease – a neurospirochetosis. Analysis of the evidence following Koch’s and Hill’s criteria – Judith Miklossy. Journal of Neuroinflammation 2011, 8:90
Cell biology: Infectious Alzheimer’s disease? Roland Riek. Nature 444, 429-431 (23 November 2006)
Laboratory Reports of borrelia burgdorferi in tissue
Sample Laboratory Reports of borrelia burgdorferi in tissue (.pdf) – by Alan B. MacDonald.
Lateral DNA Transfer
Lateral gene transfer and the nature of bacterial innovation. Howard Ochman, Jeffrey G. Lawrence & Eduardo A. Groisman. NATURE. VOL 405. 18 MAY 2000
Article on mechanisms of DNA Transfer by Sridhar Rao P.N. June 2006.
Transfection (Lateral DNA transfer) Borrelia to Human Alzheimer DNA Data. Click here for case 1 of 7. To see cases 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 please see these links to NCBI database files:
DQ188100.1
DQ188101.1
DQ188102.1
DQ188103.1
DQ188104.1
DQ188105.1
Clinical photos of Erythema Migrans and Micrographs of Spirochetes
Lyme and/or Lyme-like Disease in Missouri, Edwin J. Masters and H. Denny Donnell. Mo Med. 1995 Jul;92(7):346-53.
Blood transfusions – risk of Borrelia infection
Can Lyme Disease be transferred by blood transfusion? A look at Transfer of Borrelia burgdorferi s.s. infection via blood transfusion in a murine model. Gabitzsch ES, Piesman J, Dolan MC, Sykes CM, Zeidner NS. J Parasitol. 2006 Aug;92(4):869-70.
Lyme endocarditis
This 2012 case report of “Borrelia endocarditis” in a human from France illustrates borrelia infection proven by advanced PCR DNA analysis and sequencing in the most sophisticated lab in France. The species causing the heart valve infection was not the USA strain of borrelia burgdorferi (Bb sensu stricto ss) but rather a member of the European borrelia burgdorferi family ( sensu latu sl) Borrelia Afzelii.
Alluded to in the French case report is a second case of human bacterial endocarditis from the Czech republic due to the separate borrelia strain Borrelia bissetti.
Lyme endocarditis. (.pdf) Hidri N, Barraud O, de Martino S, Garnier F, Paraf F, Martin C, Sekkal S, Laskar M, Jaulhac B, Ploy MC. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2012 Aug 30. See article on PubMed here
Eyelid and Eye Tick bites
These papers provide very clear pictures of ticks and tick bites.
Eyelid Tick Bite. Santos-Bueso, E., Calvo-Gonzalez, et al. ARCH SOC ESP OFTALMOL 2006; 81: 173-176
Lone-Star Tick Bite of the Conjunctive. Richard Green. ARCH OPHTHALMOL/VOL 119, DEC 2001
Tick inoculation in an eyelid region: report on five cases with one complication of the orbital myositis associated with Lyme borreliosis. Holak H, Holak N, Huzarska M, Holak S. 2006; 108(4-6):220-4.
Tick infestation of the eyelid. Samaha A, Green WR, Traboulsi EI, Ma’luf R. Am J Ophthalmol. 1998 Feb;125(2):263-4.
Biofilms – BUT NOT Borrelia Biofilms
The association of Streptococcus bovis/gallolyticus with colorectal tumors: The nature and the underlying mechanisms of its etiological role. Ahmed S Abdulamir*, Rand R Hafidh, Fatimah Abu Bakar. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2011, 30:11 .
This paper discusses Strep Bovis, Endocarditis and Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk.
It looks at the role of biofilm formation:
1. Biofilms on Heart valve vegetations in Endocarditis
2. The suspected role of biofilm formation in the Human Gastrointestinal Tract
This section of the paper is especially relevant:
“Moreover, all tested strains showed the capability to adhere to polystyrole surfaces and form biofilms [108]. Another study which assessed 17 endocarditis-derived human isolates, identified 15 S. gallolyticus subspecies gallolyticus, one S. gallolyticus subspecies pasteurianus (biotype II/2) and one S. infantarius subspecies coli (biotype II/1) for their in vitro adherence to components of the extracellular matrix. They found that S. gallolyticus subspecies gallolyticus has very efficient adherence characteristics to the host extracellular matrix; this bacteria showed powerful adherence to collagen type I and type IV, fibrinogen, collagen type V, and fibronectin [109] (Figure 1). These adherence criteria make S. gallolyticus subspecies gallolyticus a successful colonizer in both intestinal and cardiac tissues. Therefore, it has been stated that the relationship between S. bovis/gallolyticus endocarditis and S. bovis/gallolyticus colonic tumors suggests the existence of certain adhesins on the cell wall of these bacteria allowing the colonization of both colonic and vascular tissues [106,107].”
On Syphilis
Actualites Physio-Biologiques sur la Syphilis (.pdf). (in French) P. Collart and M. Poitevin. Illustrates Granular and Cystic forms of Treponema Pallidum Biology.
Treponema Pallidum Buds, Granules, and Cysts as found in Human Syphilitic Chancres and seen in fixed unstained smears observed under dark ground illumination. by Coutts, W.,E., and Coutts, W.R. American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Venereal Dis 37: 29-36, 1953. Find this article on Pubmed here
This Landmark Article from Drs Coutts in 1952 describes Cystic forms of Treponema pallidum, with Buds and Granular forms in serum taken from Syphilitic Chancres. The authors survey the previous literature dating back to Schaudinn and Hoffman, and cite the views of many other distinguished syphilologists endorsing the view that Pathogenic spirochetes have a complex life-cycle which includes vegetative (spiral) and diverse cystic and granular forms.
On Brazilian Lyme-like illness
Two articles from Dr Yoshinari:
Brazilian lyme-like disease or baggio-yoshinari syndrome: exotic and emerging brazilian tick-borne zoonosis by Natalino Hajime Yoshinari, Elenice Mantovani, Virgínia Lucia Nazario Bonoldi, Roberta Gonçalves Marangoni, Giancarla Gauditano. Rev Assoc Med Bras 2010; 56(3): 363-9 363
Description of Lyme disease-like syndrome in Brazil. Is it a new tick borne disease or Lyme disease variation? E. Mantovani, I.P. Costa, G. Gauditano1, V.L.N. Bonoldi1, M.L. Higuchi and N.H. Yoshinari. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (2007) 40: 443-456
Note: pictures of an Erythema migrans like lesion are presented. Spirochetes are illustrated. The species is yet to be determined.
Cystic to spiral transformations