Role of outer membrane architecture in immune evasion by Treponema pallidum and Borrelia burgdorferi.

Combined ultrastructural and molecular studies have revealed that the syphilis and Lyme-disease spirochetes, Treponema pallidum and Borrelia burgdorferi, have distinctive molecular architectures. Both organisms persist in their hosts and have strategies for immune evasion that include the use of rare, poorly immunogenic surface-exposed proteins as potential virulence determinants.