title: Evasin-3-like anti-chemokine activity in salivary gland extracts of ixodid ticks during blood-feeding: a new target for tick control.
abstract: Ticks exploit many evasion mechanisms to circumvent the immune control of their hosts including subversion of the communication language between cells of the immune system provided by chemokines and other cytokines. One subversive molecule secreted in the saliva of Rhipicephalus sanguineus is Evasin-3, a structurally unique 7 kDa protein that selectively binds the neutrophil chemoattractants, CXCL8 and (with lower affinity) CXCL1. We compared anti-human CXCL8 and anti-mouse CXCL1/KC activities in salivary gland extracts prepared from adult Amblyomma variegatum, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and Dermacentor reticulatus ticks during blood-feeding. Both anti-CXCL8 activity and anti-CXCL1 activity were detected in all species and in both adult females and males, with consistently higher activity levels against CXCL8. These results suggest that Evasin-3-like activity is common amongst metastriate ixodid tick species, and provide further evidence of the importance to ticks in controlling neutrophils during blood-feeding. As such, Evasin-3 offers a new target for anti-tick vaccine development.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vancová
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hajnická
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Slovák
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kocáková
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Paesen
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Nuttall
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D054360:Chemokine CXCL1 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D054387:Receptors, CXCR / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000737:chemistry*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013983:Tick Control / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: C508606:CXCL8 protein, human; D054360:Chemokine CXCL1; C475895:Cxcl1 protein, mouse; D016209:Interleukin-8; D054387:Receptors, CXCR