Lyme disease is a serious infectious aliment caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. It enters the body through infected tick bites and spreads systemically in the blood stream causing, inflammation, joint pain, and neurological problems. Scientists know that B. burgdorferi moves in and out of the bloodstream and into cells lining the blood vessels as part of its infectious process. In the research paper below, they discovered that the bacterium produces a protein called BBK32 that may allow it to cling to the walls of the blood vessels. These “catch-bonds” are the same mechanism used by white blood cells to prevent themselves from being swept away in the rush of the bloodstream. These findings suggest that catch-bond tethering may be a common solution, used by a variety of cells, to overcome the problem of adhesion to the inside of blood vessels.
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Scientific Article:
ebady et al 2016
