Lyme disease not tied with either Alzheimer's disease or Lewy body dementia: study

A recent, single-patient case report called in to question whether Lyme disease may cause Lewy body dementia. The patient had early Lyme disease that had been treated with doxycycline, which is highly effective for Lyme neuroborreliosis. The patient had a multi-year gap between the treatment of the early Lyme disease and cognitive decline. No significant difference in B burgdorferi sensu stricto detection in postmortem tissue samples was noted between the case patient and controls.

In this article, the researchers discuss whether there is credible evidence that Lyme disease is a cause of Alzheimer's disease and critically review a recent publication claiming that Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto infection, the primary cause of Lyme disease in the United States, may cause Lewy body dementia.

Thus, the researchers concluded that no convincing evidence exists that Lyme disease is a cause of either Alzheimer's disease or Lewy body dementia.

Reference:

Wormser GP, Marques A, Pavia CS, Schwartz I, Feder HM Jr, Pachner AR. Lack of convincing evidence that Borrelia burgdorferi infection causes either Alzheimer's disease or Lewy body dementia published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases. Published online November 29, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab993