Research

Dr. Alan B. MacDonald (631) 862-3064

Research articles by Dr. MacDonald are listed below.

In the United States 4 million people suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive, degenerative disorder that damages the brain cells responsible for intellectual functioning in the brain, including memory, intelligence, judgment, and speech. Alzheimer's disease also leads to the loss of physical functions.

While most people diagnosed with AD are over 65 years of age, a rare and aggressive form of Alzheimer's does affect a small percentage of people in their 40s and 50s. The average course of the disease from the time it is diagnosed to death is about 6 to 8 years.

Alzheimer's is characterized by a loss of brain cells, as well as changes in the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain). An accumulation of diseased nerves with tangled fibers, plaques with amyloid centers (a waxy substance of proteins and carbohydrates), and nerves with peculiar round granular forms inside their cytoplasm are hallmarks of the disease. Despite more than a decade of research, at the cost of 2 billion dollars, it is unknown why these changes develop in the brain. Researchers are divided as to whether or not there is a genetic cause for this debilitating disease.

This is where St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center Pathologist Dr. Alan B. MacDonald weighs in. Dr. MacDonald believes that a paradigm shift in the direction of a non-genetic cause might be in order. His hypothesis is derived from the model of another potentially brain-wasting disease, a spirochetal infection (syphilis), which shows many parallels with Borrelia infections such as lyme disease, both of which respond to, and in early stages are curable by, a simple antibiotic treatment. With the approval of St. Catherine's Institutional Review Board and a small grant from the Turn the Corner Foundation, Dr. MacDonald conducted a molecular study of Alzheimer's disease to test his hypothesis using brain tissue obtained from the Harvard Medical School brain tissue bank.

"I was able to conduct research on brain tissue from 10 unrelated individuals, from different geographic regions, who had lived and died with AD. Of these 10 samples, 7 were "sharp" enough for DNA research standards. To my surprise these 7 samples produced identical fusion DNA sequences to each other, but do not match any DNA sequences in the National Gene Data Bank," explained Dr. MacDonald. "The DNA sequence that all the samples shared was not human but spirochetal… a bacteria that appears to have inserted itself into the brain cells of the individuals who died with Alzheimer's disease. Of course this is a small study with a small sample, but what would the probability of this occurring by chance be? Not nearly as great as the implications… is Alzheimer's disease caused by a previously undetected infection? Only time and more research will tell us whether the early antibiotic treatment of dementia of the Alzheimer type might offer some hope."

Borrelia Molecular Research Study - Completed works

"Transfection "Junk" DNA - a link to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease"
Evidence for the incorporation of DNA of the Borrelia microbe into the DNA of seven cases of Alzheimer's disease.
Download the article as it was published in Medical Hypothesis

"A Life cycle for Borrelia spirochetes"
Evidence for many more legitimate forms for the Borrelia microbe include Rounded Cysts, Dot-like granules, straightened mutants and L forms.
Download the article as it was published in Medical Hypothesis

"Plaques of Alzheimer's disease originate from the
Cysts of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme Disease spirochete"
Evidence for a radical redefinition of the Rounded Plaques which destroy brain tissue in Alzheimer's disease
Download the article as it was published in Medical Hypothesis

"Spirochetal Cyst forms in Neurodegenerative disorders...hiding in plain sight"
An interconnection between Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS), Lewy body Dementia, and Pick's disease based on the Cystic spirochete "attack model"
Download the article as it was published in Medical Hypothesis