ArticleMicrobiology (Reading, England)2015
Morphological and biochemical features of Borrelia burgdorferi pleomorphic forms.
Article in Microbiology (Reading, England), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed.
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- The First Study ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges in Lyme Disease and Co-Infections: Unraveling Neuropsychiatric and Neurological Complexities-A Comprehensive Case Series Analysis.Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.) · 2025Article
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- Antimicrobial cyclic peptides effectively inhibit multiple forms of Borrelia and cross the blood-brain barrier model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- New Epitopes for the Serodiagnosis of Human Borreliosis.Microorganisms · 2024Article
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- Baggio-Yoshinari Syndrome: A Report of Five Cases.Microorganisms · 2024Article
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- Secreted Metabolites fromMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Antigenicity and immunogenicity of different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato spirochetes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Members of the paralogous gene family 12 from the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi are non-specific DNA-binding proteins.PloS one · 2024Article
- Round Bodies Detected by Treponema pallidum Immunohistochemical Stain in Two Cases of Cutaneous Syphilitic Gummata.The American Journal of dermatopathology · 2024Article
- Pathogenicity and virulence ofVirulence · 2023Review
- Global transcriptomic analysis of breast cancer and normal mammary epithelial cells infected with Borrelia burgdorferi.European journal of microbiology & immunology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The spirochaete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato is the causative agent of Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne infection in the northern hemisphere. There is a long-standing debate regarding the role of pleomorphic forms in Lyme disease pathogenesis, while very little is known about the characteristics of these morphological variants. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of B. burgdorferi pleomorphic formation in different culturing conditions at physiological temperature. Interestingly, human serum induced the bacterium to change its morphology to round bodies (RBs). In addition, biofilm-like colonies in suspension were found to be part of B. burgdorferi's normal in vitro growth. Further studies provided evidence that spherical RBs had an intact and flexible cell envelope, demonstrating that they are not cell wall deficient, or degenerative as previously implied. However, the RBs displayed lower metabolic activity compared with spirochaetes. Furthermore, our results indicated that the different pleomorphic variants were distinguishable by having unique biochemical signatures. Consequently, pleomorphic B. burgdorferi should be taken into consideration as being clinically relevant and influence the development of novel diagnostics and treatment protocols.
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