A bite so sweet: the glycobiology interface of tick-host-pathogen interactions.

Vector-borne diseases constitute 17% of all infectious diseases in the world; among the blood-feeding arthropods, ticks transmit the highest number of pathogens. Understanding the interactions between the tick vector, the mammalian host and the pathogens circulating between them is the basis for the successful development of vaccines against ticks or the tick-transmitted pathogens as well as for the development of specific treatments against tick-borne infections. A lot of effort has been put into transcriptomic and proteomic analyses; however, the protein-carbohydrate interactions and the overall glycobiology of ticks and tick-borne pathogens has not been given the importance or priority deserved.

Pleomorphism and Viability of the Lyme Disease Pathogen Exposed to Physiological Stress Conditions: A Correlative Cryo-Fluorescence and Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy Study.

To understand the response of the Lyme disease spirochete exposed to stress conditions and assess the viability of this spirochete, we used a correlative cryo-fluorescence and cryo-scanning microscopy approach. This approach enables simple exposition of bacteria to various experimental conditions that can be stopped at certain time intervals by cryo-immobilization, examination of cell viability without necessity to maintain suitable culture conditions during viability assays, and visualization of structures in their native state at high magnification. We focused on rare and transient events e.

Tick-Pathogen Interactions and Vector Competence: Identification of Molecular Drivers for Tick-Borne Diseases.

Ticks and the pathogens they transmit constitute a growing burden for human and animal health worldwide. Vector competence is a component of vectorial capacity and depends on genetic determinants affecting the ability of a vector to transmit a pathogen. These determinants affect traits such as tick-host-pathogen and susceptibility to pathogen infection.

Diagnosing Borreliosis.

Borrelia species fall into two groups, the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) complex, the cause of Lyme borreliosis (also known as Lyme disease), and the relapsing fever group. Both groups exhibit inter- and intraspecies diversity and thus have variations in both clinical presentation and diagnostic approaches. A further layer of complexity is derived from the fact that ticks may carry multiple infectious agents and are able to transmit them to the host during blood feeding, with potential overlapping clinical manifestations.

A divergent spirochete strain isolated from a resident of the southeastern United States was identified by multilocus sequence typing as Borrelia bissettii.

Background: Out of 20 spirochete species from Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex recognized to date some are considered to have a limited distribution, while others are worldwide dispersed.

Sensitivity of Lyme Borreliosis Spirochetes to Serum Complement of Regular Zoo Animals: Potential Reservoir Competence of Some Exotic Vertebrates.

Reaction of vertebrate serum complement with different Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species is used as a basis in determining reservoir hosts among domesticated and wild animals. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia garinii, and Borrelia afzelii were tested for their sensitivity to sera of exotic vertebrate species housed in five zoos located in the Czech Republic. We confirmed that different Borrelia species have different sensitivity to host serum.

Identification and Characterization of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Proteins Involved in Infection of the Tick Vector, Ixodes scapularis.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an emerging zoonotic pathogen transmitted by Ixodes scapularis that causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis. Here, a high throughput quantitative proteomics approach was used to characterize A. phagocytophilum proteome during rickettsial multiplication and identify proteins involved in infection of the tick vector, I.

Invasive potential of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC type L strains increases the possible disease risk to humans in the regions of their distribution.

Background: Analysis of Borrelia burgdorferi ospC types from the southeastern U.S.A.

Seroprevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and tick-borne encephalitis virus in zoo animal species in the Czech Republic.

This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of antibodies against Borrelia bugdorferi (Bb) s.l. and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in zoo animals in the Czech Republic.

Identification and partial characterisation of new members of the Ixodes ricinus defensin family.

The hard-bodied tick Ixodes ricinus (castor bean tick) is the most common tick species in Europe. I. ricinus is a vector of the causative agents of diseases that affect humans and animals including tick-borne encephalitis, borreliosis, tick-borne fever and babesiosis.

Divergence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato spirochetes could be driven by the host: diversity of Borrelia strains isolated from ticks feeding on a single bird.

Background: The controversy surrounding the potential impact of birds in spirochete transmission dynamics and their capacity to serve as a reservoir has existed for a long time. The majority of analyzed bird species are able to infect larval ticks with Borrelia. Dispersal of infected ticks due to bird migration is a key to the establishment of new foci of Lyme borreliosis.

Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto ospC alleles associated with human lyme borreliosis worldwide in non-human-biting tick Ixodes affinis and rodent hosts in Southeastern United States.

Comparative analysis of ospC genes from 127 Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strains collected in European and North American regions where Lyme disease is endemic and where it is not endemic revealed a close relatedness of geographically distinct populations. ospC alleles A, B, and L were detected on both continents in vectors and hosts, including humans. Six ospC alleles, A, B, L, Q, R, and V, were prevalent in Europe; 4 of them were detected in samples of human origin.

The rare ospC allele L of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, commonly found among samples collected in a coastal plain area of the southeastern United States, is associated with ixodes affinis ticks and local rodent hosts Peromyscus gossypinus and Sigmodon hispidus.

The rare ospC allele L was detected in 30% of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strains cultured from a tick species, Ixodes affinis, and two rodent host species, Peromyscus gossypinus and Sigmodon hispidus, collected in a coastal plain area of Georgia and South Carolina, in the southeastern United States.

Neutrophil extracellular traps entrap and kill Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto spirochetes and are not affected by Ixodes ricinus tick saliva.

Lyme disease is caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. They are transmitted mainly by Ixodes ricinus ticks. After a few hours of infestation, neutrophils massively infiltrate the bite site.

Updates on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex with respect to public health.

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex is a diverse group of worldwide distributed bacteria that includes 18 named spirochete species and a still not named group proposed as genomospecies 2.

Functional characterization of two defensin isoforms of the hard tick Ixodes ricinus.

Background: The immune system of ticks is stimulated to produce many pharmacologically active molecules during feeding and especially during pathogen invasion. The family of cationic peptides - defensins - represents a specific group of antimicrobial compounds with six conserved cysteine residues in a molecule.

Results: Two isoforms of the defensin gene (def1 and def2) were identified in the European tick Ixodes ricinus.

IrML - a gene encoding a new member of the ML protein family from the hard tick, Ixodes ricinus.

Blood intake causes significant changes in ticks, triggering vital physiological processes including differential gene expression. A gene encoding Ixodes ricinus ML-domain containing protein (IrML) is one of the set of the genes that are strongly induced by blood meals. IrML belongs to the ML protein family that commonly occurs in diverse organisms and is involved in lipid binding and transport, pathogen recognition or in immune response.

Multilocus sequence analysis of Borrelia bissettii strains from North America reveals a new Borrelia species, Borrelia kurtenbachii.

Using multilocus sequence analyses (MLSA), we investigated the phylogenetic relationship of spirochaete strains from North America previously assigned to the genospecies Borrelia bissettii. We amplified internal fragments of 8 housekeeping genes (clpA, clpX, nifS, pepX, pyrG, recG, rplB, and uvrA) located on the main linear chromosome by polymerase chain reaction. Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated sequences of the 8 loci showed that the B.

Borrelia carolinensis sp. nov., a novel species of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex isolated from rodents and a tick from the south-eastern USA.

A group of 16 isolates with genotypic characteristics different from those of known species of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex were cultured from ear biopsies of the rodents Peromyscus gossypinus and Neotoma floridana trapped at five localities in South Carolina, USA, and from the tick Ixodes minor feeding on N. floridana. Multilocus sequence analysis of members of the novel species, involving the 16S rRNA gene, the 5S-23S (rrf-rrl) intergenic spacer region and the flagellin, ospA and p66 genes, was conducted and published previously and was used to clarify the taxonomic status of the novel group of B.

Delineation of a new species of the Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Complex, Borrelia americana sp. nov.

Analysis of borrelia isolates collected from ticks, birds, and rodents from the southeastern United States revealed the presence of well-established populations of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia bissettii, Borrelia carolinensis, and Borrelia sp. nov. Multilocus sequence analysis of five genomic loci from seven samples representing Borrelia sp.

New defensins from hard and soft ticks: similarities, differences, and phylogenetic analyses.

Despite the importance of ticks as vectors of disease very little is known about their immune system. Antimicrobial peptides, including defensins (phylogenetically ancient antibacterial peptides) are major components of innate immunity in ticks that have been shown to provide protection against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoan parasites. With the aim of studying the evolution of the genes involved in tick defense, we identified the preprodefensin genes from four Ornithodoros tick species (O.

Molecular detection of Borrelia bissettii DNA in serum samples from patients in the Czech Republic with suspected borreliosis.

Until recently, three spirochete genospecies were considered to be the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis (LB) in Europe: Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii. However, the DNA of Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia lusitaniae, Borrelia spielmanii and Borrelia bissettii has already been detected in samples of human origin, or the spirochetes were isolated from the patients with symptoms of LB. Molecular analysis of 12 selected serum samples collected in the regional hospital confirmed the presence of B.

Borrelia carolinensis sp. nov., a new (14th) member of the Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato complex from the southeastern region of the United States.

Approximately 118 Borrelia isolates were cultured from a variety of rodents, birds, and ticks collected in the southern United States. In addition to a highly diverse group of Borrelia bissettii strains and a homogenous group of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strains, a group of 16 isolates with unusual characteristics was found. The isolates were cultured from ear biopsy samples of the rodents Peromyscus gossypinus and Neotoma floridana trapped at five localities in South Carolina.

Detection of Borrelia bissettii in cardiac valve tissue of a patient with endocarditis and aortic valve stenosis in the Czech Republic.

Molecular analysis of a clinical sample confirmed the presence of Borrelia bissettii DNA in cardiac valve tissue from a patient with endocarditis and aortic valve stenosis. This evidence strongly supports the involvement of B. bissettii in Lyme disease in Europe.