Osps suppress the immune system
OspA (Pam3Cys) causes immunosuppression
Many research groups have confirmed that OspA gums up the immunity works, causes immunosuppression and inhibits apoptosis, the natural process of programmed cell death which is supposed to limit infection. In fact, a group of Lyme experts including Allen Steere, Gary Wormser, Paul Mead, John Branda, Franc Strle and Linden Hu published in December 2016:
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“This finding suggests that there is redundancy in the ability of the innate immune system to recognize B. burgdorferi and/or that these components can activate pathways that produce anti-inflammatory cytokines……the anti-inflammatory [immunosuppressive] effects might be the more important function of TLR signaling.”
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Gary Wormser of New York Medical College, in 2000:
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"The modulation of human lymphocyte proliferative responses was demonstrated with a recombinant outer surface protein A (OspA) vaccine preparation for the prevention of Borrelia burgdorferi infection. After exposure to either the unaltered vaccine preparation or OspA prepared in saline, normal lymphocyte responses to the mitogens concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin-M or pokeweed mitogen, or the antigen BCG were consistently reduced. Whole cell extracts of B. burgdorferi also modulated immune responses but required a much greater quantity of protein than needed for the OspA preparation. The magnitude of modulation was directly dependent on the quantity of OspA. OspA interferes with the response of lymphocytes to proliferative stimuli including a blocking of cell cycle phase progression. Future studies designed to delete the particular region or component of the OspA molecule responsible for this effect may lead to improved vaccine preparations.”
Mario Philipp of Tulane University published in 1998:
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"These results demonstrate that B. burgdorferi can stimulate the production of an antiinflammatory, immunosuppressive cytokine in naive cells and suggest that IL-10 may play a role both in avoidance by the spirochete of deleterious immune responses and in limiting the inflammation that the spirochete is able to induce."
And as far back as 1988, Raymond Dattwyler of State University of New York at Stony Brook reported "a marked inhibition" of natural killer cell activity upon exposure to borrelia and its triacyl lipoproteins.
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"...when lymphocytes are cultured in the presence of growing Bb there is a marked inhibition ( p < .0005 ) of NK activity on days 3, 5, and 7 when compared to lymphocytes cultured in BSKII media in the absence of spirochetes...The inhibition is directly attributable to the organism or its supernatants (data not shown).”
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