Dear Colleagues, 

Lyme disease, a multisystem disorder caused by certain species of spirochetes from Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, is an incredibly controversial medical phenomenon that affects millions of people in the Northern hemisphere in many different ways. It is an infectious zoonotic disease that can usually be succesfully cured by antibiotic therapy at the very early stages of infection, targeting the replicative forms of spirochetes. The vast majority of people have no idea about the existance of Lyme disease spirochetes until they get infected. Transmitted to the hosts, including humans, during the bite of multiple species of hard ticks, Lyme disease spirochetes cause the most common vector-borne disease in the United States where it was officially recognized in the early 1970s. Borrelia lives in two distinct and different milieus and its whole existence is one lifelong struggle for survival. Since all Borrelia species are host-propagated bacteria that move between a vertebrate host and tick vector, the spirochetes have developed strategies to sense and survive in these diverse environments. The survival of Lyme disease spirochetes in both worlds is enabled by altering the level of gene expression in response to changes in temperature, pH, salts, nutrient content, multiple host- and vector-dependent factors and by interaction with vector and host proteins. However, the change in the gene expression level is not the only route to spirochete survival. The signals that Borrelia receives from hostile environments evoke morphological alterations that keep the pathogen alive and induce the production of atypical forms or persisters that are refractory to elimination. The formation of persisters in vitro and in vivo is a reversible process that establishes the basis for disease recurrence when the hostile pressure drops.

We encourage you to submit research papers or reviews to this Special Issue on any Borrelia-related topic, with the purpose of bringing new knowledge to the field in terms of a better understanding of the complex word of LD spirochetes, their unpredictable behaviour and inventive ways of survival, or to expand the discussion of another controversial subject called chronic Lyme disease.

Dr. Natasha Rudenko 
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• zoonoses
• tick-borne disease
• Lyme disease
• spirochetes
• Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex
• elusive pathogens
• transmission
• survival strategies
• differential gene expression
• atypical morphology
• dormant forms
• persisters
• biofilms
• disease recurrence
• detection
• eradication
• chronic disease
• antibiotic treatment