09/16/2026
Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria behind Lyme disease, carries over 120 surface proteins — some of which closely resemble human tissue like joint cartilage, nerve cells, and heart muscle.
When your immune system learns to attack those bacterial proteins, it can mistakenly develop antibodies that cross-react with your own tissue.
Even after the infection clears, those antibodies remain and keep attacking.
This is how a bacterial infection can train your immune system to turn against you.
For educational purposes only.