Initial Publication

The hypothesis that various types of spirochetes might be involved in Alzheimer's disease was born when we had the opportunity to analyze the brain of a patient in 1987 suffering from meningovascular Lyme neuroborreliosis. 

In order to detect spirochetes, brain tissue of a patient with clinically and pathologically confirmed syphilitic dementia was used as positive control. 

Surprisingly, silver impregnation techniques for the detection of spirochetes showed innumerable spirochetes in the cerebral cortex forming masses or balls, identical to senile plaques. Individual spirochetes disseminated in the cerebral cortex were identical to curly fibers. Neurofibrillary tangles and beta-amyloid deposition were also present. When seen at high magnification the plaques were made up by spirochetes. 

Following this observation we expected that various types of spirochetes, e.g. various Borrelia and Treponema spirochetes including Borrelia burgdorferi, periodontal pathogen spirochetes, intestinal and urogenital spirochetes in a similar way to Treponema pallidum, may cause dementia and reproduce the pathological and biological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

a research was undertaken, using neutral techniques to detect all types of spirochetes in order to answer the question, whether various types of spirochetes are involved in Alzheimer's disease, whether Alzheimer's disease might be a neurospirochetosis.