The tropical bont tick, Amblyomma variegatum can cause intense skin irritation and inflammation and bites that often develop into septic wounds or abscess in their host. Crude salivary gland extract (SGE) of partially engorged A. variegatum females as well as SGE protein fractions purified by three-step reverse phase HPLC procedure were tested for their anti-aggregatory effect on isolated human blood platelets stimulated with thrombin and compared with the effect of recombinant hirudin. At concentrations 10(-3) and 5 x 10(-3) microg protein/ml the following rank order of antiplatelet activity was detected: AV 16/3 (inhibitor purified from AV-III, third purification) > SGE > AV-II (fraction from first purification) > AV-III (fraction from first purification) > hirudin. The effect of all fractions tested was dose-dependent. For fraction AV 16/3, the inhibitory effect was 49 and 61% for 10(-3) and 5 x 10(-3) microg protein/ml, respectively. The results suggest that protein fractions from A. variegatum SGE possess an antithrombin effect on human blood platelets with hirudin-like activity.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1025398100044DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

tick amblyomma
8
amblyomma variegatum
8
protein fractions
8
human blood
8
blood platelets
8
10-3 10-3
8
10-3 microg
8
microg protein/ml
8
fraction purification
8
inhibitor thrombin-stimulated
4

Similar Publications

Detection of Amblyomma maculatum and Rickettsia parkeri in prairies of Central Missouri.

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports

January 2025

Applied Computational Ecology Lab, School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, United States of America. Electronic address:

The destruction and decline of prairie habitats due to landscape repurposing have profoundly impacted the diversity of plant, animal, and insect life. In the Central United States, the reconstruction of prairie habitats from farmland is a widely applied strategy to raise diversity and recreate a healthy, complex ecosystem. In Central Missouri, we examine the consequences of reconstruction efforts on the prevalence of zoonotic diseases and their associated pathogens by performing tick-flagging at two prairie sites.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multi-season survey of ixodid tick species collected from domestic dogs in Chad, Africa.

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports

January 2025

Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, Department of Population Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Wildlife Health Building, 589 D.W. Brooks Dr., University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA; Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA; Center for Ecology of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. Electronic address:

Ticks are medically important vectors of pathogens, many of which are zoonotic or impact domestic animal and/or wildlife health. Climate change, landuse modifications, and increasing interactions between domestic animals, wildlife, and humans have resulted in changes in tick-host dynamics and the emergence of novel pathogens worldwide. Therefore, describing the host and geographic ranges of vector species is essential in assessing disease risk, especially in understudied areas, and should be conducted in a One Health context.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Spatiotemporal distribution, species diversity, and burden of ixodid ticks on cattle in Northwest Ethiopia.

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports

January 2025

The University of Gondar, College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Department of Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health, Gondar, Ethiopia. Electronic address:

Ixodid ticks are important arthropods in medicine and veterinary science, posing a considerable threat to livestock in East Africa. A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2022 to June 2023 to explore the spatial distribution, prevalence, species diversity and burden of cattle ticks, and to investigate risk factors associated with tick infestation prevalence and burden in northwest Ethiopia. A total of 2528 cattle were randomly selected through multistage cluster sampling for tick inspection across 18 districts during both dry and wet seasons.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A novel genotype of Babesia microti-like group in Ixodes montoyanus ticks parasitizing the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) in Ecuador.

Exp Appl Acarol

January 2025

Laboratorio de Vectores y Enfermedades Transmitidas, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, CENUR Litoral Norte, Universidad de la República, Salto, Uruguay.

Babesia species (Piroplasmida) are hemoparasites that infect erythrocytes of mammals and birds and are mainly transmitted by hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). These hemoparasites are known to be the second most common parasites infecting mammals, after trypanosomes, and some species may cause malaria-like disease in humans. Diagnosis and understanding of Babesia diversity increasingly rely on genetic data obtained through molecular techniques.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance of tick (Acari: Ixodidae) infestations of humans in Singapore.

Ticks Tick Borne Dis

January 2025

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Immunology Translational Research Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Electronic address:

Ticks are an increasingly important threat to public health in Southeast Asia, due to the role of many tick species as parasites of humans and as vectors of zoonotic pathogens. Singapore is a densely populated Southeast Asian nation with a rich tick fauna and a significant mosaic of city and greenspace. However, apart from occasional case reports, the human-biting ticks in Singapore have received little attention from researchers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!