Jorge L. Benach

Research Interests

Lyme disease is a chronic, systemic infection caused by the tick borne spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme disease is unevenly distributed throughout the northern hemisphere with foci of intense transmission, and thus, of high prevalence. Suffolk County in Long Island is one such focus with the highest incidence of disease in New York State, and among the top three in the nation. Therefore, interest in this disease is local, national, and international.

Our laboratory has been interested in the fundamental processes of dissemination, and of disease causation. Borrelia interacts with the plasminogen activation system of the host to borrow the proteolytic activity of plasmin to promote its own invasiveness. This borrowing of host proteases has been studied in other bacteria and in some viruses with similar results. In the case of Borrelia, however, this dependency on host proteases is critical because of its own shortage of proteolytic enzymes. Borrelia has limited capacity to synthesize essential macromolecular building blocks, has no obvious virulence factors or pathogenicity islands, and of direct interest to us, has a very limited protease arsennal. Yet, this organism can invade several organs from its site of entry in the skin and cause a long, often intermittent infection. Borrowed plasmin allows Borrelia (both agents of Lyme disease and relapsing fever) to penetrate faster and in greater numbers across vascular tissue, to disseminate throughout the vector, and to penetrate and cause inflammatory changes in the meninges.