Tick feeding modulates the human skin immune landscape to facilitate tick-borne pathogen transmission.

During cutaneous tick attachment, the feeding cavity becomes a site of transmission for tick salivary compounds and tick-borne pathogens. However, the immunological consequences of tick feeding for human skin remain unclear. Here, we assessed human skin and blood samples upon tick bite and developed a human skin explant model mimicking Ixodes ricinus bites and tick-borne pathogen infection.

Bacteria and protozoa with pathogenic potential in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Viennese recreational areas.

Ixodes ricinus is the most relevant vector for tick-borne diseases in Austria and responsible for the transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s. l.), which causes Lyme borreliosis in humans; however, also other bacteria and protozoa can be found in ticks and have the potential of infecting people and animals.

Persistent Anti- IgM Antibodies without Lyme Borreliosis in the Clinical and Immunological Context.

The aim of the study was to investigate the etiology of persistent IgM antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl) and to analyze their association with nonspecific symptoms. The study group comprised individuals with persistent IgM antibodies in the absence of IgG. The relation between ELISA values and time elapsed since past erythema migrans (EM) was analyzed.

Nonspecific symptoms following infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato: A retrospective cohort study.

Whether infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl) can cause nonspecific symptoms is a matter of controversy. We investigated whether individuals infected with B. burgdorferi sl develop unspecific symptoms more frequently than non-infected controls.

The regional decline and rise of tick-borne encephalitis incidence do not correlate with Lyme borreliosis, Austria, 2005 to 2018.

BackgroundTick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is a human pathogen that is expanding its endemic zones in Europe, emerging in previously unaffected regions. In Austria, increasing incidence in alpine regions in the west has been countered by a decline in traditional endemic areas to the east of the country.AimTo shed light on the cause of this disparity, we compared the temporal changes of human TBE incidences in all federal provinces of Austria with those of Lyme borreliosis (LB), which has the same tick vector and rodent reservoir.