Tick Saliva and Its Role in Pathogen Transmission

Bonnet, Sarah; Kazimírová, Mária; Richardson, Jennifer; Šimo, Ladislav

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811436-0.00005-8

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 357 publications

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“…For example, by developing a laboratory model of B. bovis infection of calves through the bite of R. microplus-infected ticks, Smith and co-workers demonstrated, in 1978, that tick-induced infection was more severe than in calves infected with carrier blood, even when very low numbers of infected larvae were applied [41]. They attributed this difference in virulence to the large number of infective doses injected by each infected tick but Salivary-Assisted Transmission of tick-borne pathogens (see review in [74]) probably also contributed to this observation.…”

Section: Tick Infestations On Babesia Spp Infected Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Infection of Ticks: An Essential Tool for the Analysis of Babesia Species Biology and Transmission

Bonnet

Nadal

2021

Pathogens

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Babesiosis is one of the most important tick-borne diseases in veterinary health, impacting mainly cattle, equidae, and canidae, and limiting the development of livestock industries worldwide. In humans, babesiosis is considered to be an emerging disease mostly due to Babesia divergens in Europe and Babesia microti in America. Despite this importance, our knowledge of Babesia sp. transmission by ticks is incomplete. The complexity of vectorial systems involving the vector, vertebrate host, and pathogen, as well as the complex feeding biology of ticks, may be part of the reason for the existing gaps in our knowledge. Indeed, this complexity renders the implementation of experimental systems that are as close as possible to natural conditions and allowing the study of tick-host-parasite interactions, quite difficult. However, it is unlikely that the development of more effective and sustainable control measures against babesiosis will emerge unless significant progress can be made in understanding this tripartite relationship. The various methods used to date to achieve tick transmission of Babesia spp. of medical and veterinary importance under experimental conditions are reviewed and discussed here.

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Section: Tick Infestations On Babesia Spp Infected Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Infection of Ticks: An Essential Tool for the Analysis of Babesia Species Biology and Transmission

Bonnet

Nadal

2021

Pathogens

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“…Tick feeding, in addition, enables host infection with pathogenic microorganisms carried by ticks. Cutting-edge high-throughput technologies used during the last decade for studying composition and function of tick saliva have revealed its complexity (Ribeiro et al, 2006; Francischetti et al, 2011; Radulovič et al, 2014; Kotsyfakis et al, 2015; Tan et al, 2015; Xu et al, 2015; de Castro et al, 2016; Mans, 2016; Bonnet et al, 2018); not surprisingly, considering the tick’s biology and their parasitic lifestyle, i.e., strict hematophagy, short-term (soft ticks) to long-lasting feeding (hard ticks) on the vertebrate host, and broad spectrum of hosts. The composition of tick saliva is complex and changes with biological factors such as gender, developmental stage, feeding stage and/or the presence/absence of microorganisms, pathogenic as well non-pathogenic (Liu et al, 2014; Ayllón et al, 2015; Kotsyfakis et al, 2015; Yu et al, 2015; Bonnet et al, 2017, 2018).…”

Section: Ticks and Pharmacological Properties Of Their Salivamentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering Biological Processes at the Tick-Host Interface Opens New Strategies for Treatment of Human Diseases

et al. 2019

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Ticks are obligatory blood-feeding ectoparasites, causing blood loss and skin damage in their hosts. In addition, ticks also transmit a number of various pathogenic microorganisms that cause serious diseases in humans and animals. Ticks evolved a wide array of salivary bioactive compounds that, upon injection into the host skin, inhibit or modulate host reactions such as hemostasis, inflammation and wound healing. Modulation of the tick attachment site in the host skin involves mainly molecules which affect physiological processes orchestrated by cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. Suppressing host defense reactions is crucial for tick survival and reproduction. Furthermore, pharmacologically active compounds in tick saliva have a promising therapeutic potential for treatment of some human diseases connected with disorders in hemostasis and immune system. These disorders are often associated to alterations in signaling pathways and dysregulation or overexpression of specific cytokines which, in turn, affect mechanisms of angiogenesis, cell motility and cytoskeletal regulation. Moreover, tick salivary molecules were found to exert cytotoxic and cytolytic effects on various tumor cells and have anti-angiogenic properties. Elucidation of the mode of action of tick bioactive molecules on the regulation of cell processes in their mammalian hosts could provide new tools for understanding the complex changes leading to immune disorders and cancer. Tick bioactive molecules may also be exploited as new pharmacological inhibitors of the signaling pathways of cytokines and thus help alleviate patient discomfort and increase patient survival. We review the current knowledge about tick salivary peptides and proteins that have been identified and functionally characterized in in vitro and/or in vivo models and their therapeutic perspective.

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“…It has been documented that Borrelia transmission is enhanced in the presence of salivary proteins [7,12,13]. This convention stems from experiments involving co-injection of Borrelia with homogenates of tick salivary glands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lyme disease transmission by severely impaired ticks

et al. 2022

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It has been demonstrated that impairing protein synthesis using drugs targeted against tRNA amino acid synthetases presents a promising strategy for the treatment of a wide variety of parasitic diseases, including malaria and toxoplasmosis. This is the first study evaluating tRNA synthetases as potential drug targets in ticks. RNAi knock-down of all tested tRNA synthetases had a strong deleterious phenotype on Ixodes ricinus feeding. Our data indicate that tRNA synthetases represent attractive, anti-tick targets warranting the design of selective inhibitors. Further, we tested whether these severely impaired ticks were capable of transmitting Borrelia afzelii spirochaetes. Interestingly, biologically handicapped I. ricinus nymphs transmitted B. afzelii in a manner quantitatively sufficient to develop a systemic infection in mice. These data suggest that initial blood-feeding, despite the incapability of ticks to fully feed and salivate, is sufficient for activating B. afzelii from a dormant to an infectious mode, enabling transmission and dissemination in host tissues.

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Tick Saliva and Its Role in Pathogen Transmission

Cited by 9 publications

References 357 publications

Experimental Infection of Ticks: An Essential Tool for the Analysis of Babesia Species Biology and Transmission

Experimental Infection of Ticks: An Essential Tool for the Analysis of Babesia Species Biology and Transmission

Deciphering Biological Processes at the Tick-Host Interface Opens New Strategies for Treatment of Human Diseases

Lyme disease transmission by severely impaired ticks

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