1. Tick salivary secretion as a source of antihemostatics
- Author
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Eric Calvo, Michail Kotsyfakis, Joao H. F. Pedra, Jindrich Chmelar, and Ivo M.B. Francischetti
- Subjects
Saliva ,Serine Proteinase Inhibitors ,Proteome ,030231 tropical medicine ,Anti-Inflammatory Agents ,Biophysics ,Tick ,Biochemistry ,Article ,Hemostatics ,Virus ,03 medical and health sciences ,Ticks ,0302 clinical medicine ,Lyme disease ,parasitic diseases ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,biology ,Salivary gland ,bacterial infections and mycoses ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,3. Good health ,Arachnid Vectors ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Immunology ,Babesia ,Arthropod - Abstract
Ticks are mostly obligatory blood feeding ectoparasites that have an impact on human and animal health. In addition to direct damage due to feeding, some tick species serve as the vectors for the causative agents of several diseases, such as the spirochetes of the genus Borrelia causing Lyme disease, the virus of tick-borne encephalitis, various Rickettsial pathogens or even protozoan parasites like Babesia spp. Hard ticks are unique among bloodfeeders because of their prolonged feeding period that may last up to two weeks. During such a long period of blood uptake, the host develops a wide range of mechanisms to prevent blood loss. The arthropod ectoparasite, in turn, secretes saliva in the sites of bite that assists blood feeding. Indeed, tick saliva represents a rich source of proteins with potent pharmacologic action that target different mechanisms of coagulation, platelet aggregation and vasoconstriction. Tick adaptation to their vertebrate hosts led to the inclusion of a powerful protein armamentarium in their salivary secretion that has been investigated by high-throughput methods. The resulting knowledge can be exploited for the isolation of novel antihemostatic agents. Here we review the tick salivary antihemostatics and their characterized functions at the molecular and cellular levels.
- Published
- 2012
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