Genodromous migration of borrelia
Lymes Disease Concepts
Lymes disease is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia Burgdorferi. An important test in its detection is the Western Blot test. For the test, a large number of the bacteria are grown in a culture medium. A chemical is then added that causes the bacteria to break apart (lyse). At the same time, they are shaken violently to speed up their disintegration. The pieces are then poured onto a thin layer of gelatin.
An electric current is applied to the gelatin. The different pieces start moving through the gelatin. The lighter smaller pieces move more quickly. The end result is that the Borrelia is spread across the gel according to weight/density. The different sized pieces are then identified as bands. Three important bands are:
P23 Outer Surface Protein A (OspA)
P31 Outer Surface Protein B (OspB)
P34 Outer Surface Protein C (OspC)
A government committee decided which of the bands were significant. The committee excluded two bands, bands P31 and P34. Vaccine manufacturers held patents on those bands.
- A person who receives the vaccine would test positive for P31 and P34.
- “Therefore”, nobody should be tested for them.
That makes no sense unless you are a patent holder. P31 and P34 as outer surface proteins are most visible to the immune system and were considered the best candidates for stimulating an adaptive immune response. A person infected by a tick would likely produce detectable P31 and P34 antibodies.
The Lymes vaccine was approved and then released to the market in the late 90s. After four years, Merck withdrew it because it was defective and numerous lawsuits claimed it was harmful.
Genodromous Migration
Hominids have struggled with the genodromous migration (inter-species movement) of parasites. Our blood is replete with essential elements that ignite the epigenetic transformation of Borrelia. When the tick drinks from a deer, horse or human, the blood arrives in the Tick’s belly. The Tick saliva interferes with blood clotting. It begins drinking for many hours.
those essential elements trigger changes in Borrelia that prepare it for long-term habitation in a new host.
The fish people (Ichthyologists) created an interesting word: anadromous. It means upward migration of fish. Oceanic creatures swim upwards into the estuaries of the great rivers and encountered new variables such as freshwater and bears. According to Darwin, the survivors found a new home.
Some turned around and swam back to the ocean (catadromous or downward migration), while others basically just swam around from place to place (Epidromous).
Mammals have developed the ability to incorporate important elements into their metabolism. Things like Iron, Iodotyrosine, thiols, sterols and vitamins are enzyme cofactors and DNA signaling molecules that trigger changes. They also transform Borrelia. This transformation helps it to survive and evade host immune detection by switching its outer garments (its outer surface proteins.) The physical migration from a tick at sixty degrees ambient temperature to a warm blooded mammal ignites epigenetic changes.
Borrelia transforms its outer coat.
Genodromous Migration of Borrelia
Genodromous is a neologism (new word), which means I made it up. Geno- is race or species, and
-dromous means movement or migration. They originate in Greek. Anadromous is a neologism invented by the ichthyologists to describe the upward migration of fish from the ocean into the estuaries of the rivers. Catadromous is downward migration back into the ocean. I thought I would toss Genodromous into the word pool using Wikipedia. After about a week, wiki notified me that an ichthyologist had fished it out again. I appealed and actually spoke with an ichthyologist with a measured British accent. I explained that ana- and genodromous could coexist just like kinetic and aesthetic coexisted. They were after all just metaphors sharing a Greek suffix. No, he said. I was bemused, chastened and amused. I perceived it as cognitive dissonance, a struggle between his brain and his quantum mind.
Bacterial genes encode not just for winter coats, but also an outer covering that allows them to glide more effortlessly inside humans.
The tick must remain attached to a mammal host for part of the day before it can become infectious. During that time, the Borrelia can go through thirty generations of reproduction that would take humans 1000 years. It is evolution writ small. Bacteria can express important design changes through these successive generations. The concept of a persistent infection is hinged on the idea that the prokaryote can evolve itself in a hostile environment that provides a rich supply of nutrients to sustain itself.
After many hours of feeding, the Tick stops sucking blood and flow reverses. The Borrelia spirochete is a swimmer and has tiny oars called flagella. It can swim through the skin of the victim. A classic sign of Lymes Disease is the “Bullseye rash”. The innate Immune System does not recognize the invader in its camouflage, a new Outer Surface Protein Coat.
The “New Outer Coat” is invisible to the innate immune system. The Bullseye rash is proof of that. For many hours, the Borrelia swims through the skin and no redness (inflammation) is visible. The outer red ring of the bullseye rash tells us that the immune system has woken up and is attacking the borrelia.
The borrellia can also produce a slime in which it hides from the immune cells. Antibiotics can diffuse through the slime and attack the borrelia.
Prokaryotes created themselves over 4 billion years ago. They are single celled creatures that use DNA to reproduce. What is emerging however, is the concept that DNA is also a signal processor. The cell is covered with signaling platforms floating upon lipid rafts that reach inside through the kinase pathways to the genome (DNA).
It receives messages from its environment and is able during its life to modify its journey across a rugged fitness landscape. Gregor Mendel, with his peapods, discovered a genetic code. The code fits nicely into binary number theory. After Mendel’s passing, a book written by Charles Darwin was discovered in his library. He was a generation after Darwin and was obviously familiar with the “Voyage of the Beagle”.
The belief still persists to this day among medical professionals that it is largely a non-modifiable deterministic condition. Interestingly, few practicing physicians are aware of epigenetics. A simplistic model of methyl groups attaching themselves to genes and smuggling themselves into their progeny misses the point that genes are actually signal processors, tiny quantum computers.
In other words, we and also parasites can plink on the keys of the genetic code and modify the songs to which we dance. The traditional view of the genetic code is that it is like a roll of music in a player piano. Epigenetics is the key to understanding living dynamical systems and how the music of the metabolic symphony is written. It applies to ticks, as well as humans.
Douglas R Finlayson MD October 2013.
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