Yes, it's one of the first things they do, they go to the lymph nodes to disrupt the immune response. They create a lot of inflammation there and the immune response gets changed in their favor. This is why taking anti-inflammatory herbs is so important during treatment, probably more important than anti-spirochetal or even antibiotics. The body knows how to kill the spirochetes, but it is being confused by inflammation driven by Borrelia just where the immune response originates (lymph).
This is about
the spirochete's migration:
"The present study demonstrates that extracellular, live spirochetes accumulate in the cortical areas of lymph nodes following infection of mice with either host-adapted, or tick-borne B. burgdorferi and that they, but not inactivated spirochetes, drive the lymphadenopathy. "
journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1002066...and this study is about
the results (immunosupression) probably because lymph infection and C4b (this is a messenger that presents antigen to places that generate long lived immunity) inactivation:
"From these results we propose a model of Bb immune evasion in which the accumulation of live Bb in lymph nodes causes changes in tissue structure and a rapid expansion of their cellularity [20,21]. The presence of Bb, which is known to express numerous complement-inhibitory proteins [7,8], including a C4b-binding protein [39], or the ensuing inflammation of these tissues, may result in a reduction in local complement C4 deposition on the FDC, which is indicated by the lack of staining for C4 deposition on FDC (Fig 4 and S1 Fig). While speculative at this time, it is possible that a lack of antigen-C4 deposition diminishes antigen-presentation by the FDC to GC B cells. Reduced antigen-presentation could result in the premature collapse of the GC responses, which we have demonstrated here and previously [20,22,28]. We hope to test this model in the future."
journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004976So take Japanese Knotweed, lots of it, turmeric, no gluten, lots of veggies, etc... These are not only going to make you feel better, they will drive inflammation down and help the body fight the infection.