The authors mention the issue of resistance to common antibiotics. Which we wonder is made worse by ignoring the cyst, persister, and biofilm forms and is used against super turtle speed growing infections. So, if you give Lyme and an antibiotic as if it reproduces 30,000x a month, when it only grows once–we think that increases resistance.
But what do we know? We have focused for decades on 15 infections rather than 15,000.
The authors raise the issue of antibiotic peptides. Peptides such as LL-37 are available in different countries and are the subject of numerous research papers. These researchers identify some that are focused solely on killing Lyme bacteria.
Their summary includes mentioning what is not mentioned in obsolete USA and Canadian government guidelines by noting: “Neuroinvasive Borrelia often manifests long-term CNS [brain] disorders and is difficult to treat as most antibiotics fail to attain an effective concentration within the brain or cannot kill the persister forms of Borrelia (cysts and round bodies).
[We would add that Eva Sapi and others have clearly proved Lyme bacteria have a biofilm protective slime wall, making typical brisk short treatments of Doxy or Amoxy unable to remove these hardy bacteria entirely. Drop the numbers? Sure. And what percent become hard-protected cysts?
This study explores short amino acid sequences, known as peptides. Since proteins “Do all the work,” according to an elite scientist buddy, note that peptides are fractions of proteins. The pearl necklace is a protein composed of 3, 6, or 16 pearls (amino acids), but never a complete necklace.
They used antimicrobial peptides to target the Lyme outer-membrane fat. Isolated cyclic peptides with anti-Borrelia properties were then fused with the CNS homing peptide developed in this study (designated as O-BBB) to facilitate AMP transport across the blood-brain barrier.
Bor-18 had a half-maximal effective concentration against Lyme bacteria.
Bor-16, Bor-18, and Bor-26 inhibited the cystic form….
Within an hour, all four peptides [16, 18, 26, and 11] induced a permeability breach in the borrelial [Lyme] cell membrane, thereby depolarizing it.
Mochnáčová E, Bhide K, Kucková K, Jozefiaková J, Maľarik T, Bhide M. Antimicrobial cyclic peptides effectively inhibit multiple forms of Borrelia and cross the blood-brain barrier model. Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 20;15(1):6147. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-90605-z. PMID: 39979461; PMCID: PMC11842550.