Publications by authors named "Gilles Schnell"

Tick-borne diseases affecting humans and animals are on the rise worldwide. Vaccines constitute an effective control measure, but very few are available. We selected Lyme borreliosis, a bacterial infection transmitted by the hard tick , to validate a new concept to identify vaccine candidates.

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Understanding the mechanism of pathogen transmission is essential for the development of strategies to reduce arthropod-borne diseases. The pharmaco- and immunomodulatory properties of insect and acarine saliva play an essential role in the efficiency of pathogen transmission. The skin as the site where arthropod saliva and pathogens are inoculated - represents the key interface in vector-borne diseases.

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Lyme disease is the most important vector-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere and represents a major public health challenge with insufficient means of reliable diagnosis. Skin is rarely investigated in proteomics but constitutes in the case of Lyme disease the key interface where the pathogens can enter, persist, and multiply. Therefore, we investigated proteomics on skin samples to detect Borrelia proteins directly in cutaneous biopsies in a robust and specific way.

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Lyme borreliosis is the most important vector-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere. It is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato bacteria transmitted to humans by the bite of hard ticks, Ixodes spp. Although antibiotic treatments are efficient in the early stage of the infection, a significant number of patients develop disseminated manifestations (articular, neurological, and cutaneous) due to unnoticed or absence of erythema migrans, or to inappropriate treatment.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the interaction between Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacteria causing Lyme disease) and the salivary glands of Ixodes ricinus ticks, highlighting how this interaction affects protein expression in the ticks.
  • Using advanced protein analysis techniques, researchers identified over 120 proteins in the tick salivary glands, noting that only 12 were significantly modulated by the presence of different Borrelia strains, particularly affecting proteins related to cell defense and cytoskeletal structures.
  • This research reveals that Borrelia presence induces stress in the ticks' protein machinery, and also discusses the importance of a specific Borrelia protein, OspA, found in the salivary
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Several oleanane-related triterpenoids bearing a unique C-2 oxygenated functionality have been identified as the predominant triterpenoids from a 4900 year old oak wood sample buried in a freshwater sediment. They likely represent specific molecular tools that can be used as markers to reconstruct past vegetation assemblages, or to recognise severely altered oak wood at archaeological sites.

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