A New Tick Spit Protein is a Potent Immunomodulator
Behind mosquitos, ticks pose the greatest health risk to us among all creepy crawlies and animals. They can transmit microbes that cause serious diseases such as Lyme disease and babesiosis, an infection of red blood cells.
Ticks pass on pathogens when they latch onto our skin using their mouths to feed on our blood. Proteins in their saliva immobilize our immune response, and scientists have been studying this mechanism for ways to manipulate it to our benefit.
A new study reports they’ve found a new class of immune suppressants in tick saliva that could be useful in fighting human diseases such as cancers and arthritis.
Tick saliva contains proteins that bind to chemokines, which are a part of our immune system that guides white blood cells to infections and inflamed sites.
One class of these tick proteins are evasins. They block our inflammatory response such as itching, burning or pain when a tick is latching, so that it can feed without us noticing.
The study identified a class A3 tick evasin, the EVA-ATL-101 that binds to two families of chemokines. Once that happens, these chemokines can’t signal.
If we can control this mechanism, therapies can be created to treat a whole range of inflammatory diseases. We’ve mentioned cancer and arthritis but it’s any condition where both families of chemokines become overactive.
The potential for us to turn the table on ticks is exciting and shows the power of science to make breakthroughs possible.
More Information
Inflammatory and Autoimmune Disease Therapeutics Informed by Tick Protein
Tick parasites can attach to us and draw off blood without triggering an immune reaction because they produce proteins known as evasins that bind to and block the action of host chemokines that would normally send immune cells to attack the invader.
Tick Haller’s Organ, a New Paradigm for Arthropod Olfaction: How Ticks Differ from Insects
Ticks are the vector of many human and animal diseases; and host detection is critical to this process. Ticks have a unique sensory structure located exclusively on the 1st pairs of legs; the fore-tarsal Haller’s organ, not found in any other animals, presumed to function like the insect antennae in chemosensation but morphologically very different.
Ticks home in on body heat: A new understanding of Haller’s organ and repellent action
Ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of disease to humans and animals. Tick host detection is mainly ascribed to Haller’s organ, a complex sensory structure on the tick foreleg that detects odors, carbon dioxide and heat, but these host detection mechanisms are not well understood. There is anecdotal evidence that ticks and other ectoparasites are attracted to heat, but it has never been demonstrated that they use radiant heat to detect hosts at a distance.