title: The quest for a universal vaccine against ticks: cross-immunity insights.
abstract: As blood-sucking parasites, ticks inflict great damage to animals and humans in many parts of the world. The continued use of chemical acaricides is not sustainable due to increasing tick resistance, growing public concern over drug residues in food and in the environment, and the high cost of developing new acaricides. Therefore, an alternative control strategy is urgently needed. Vaccines against ticks have been shown to be functionally feasible, as highlighted by the success of Bm86 vaccines against Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and closely related tick species. However, a limited number of tick antigens with cross-protective epitopes have been characterized so far, limiting widespread deployment of the available vaccines, including those derived from Bm86. Therefore, identifying tick antigens with potential broad-spectrum protection against multiple tick species is subject of vigorous research at present. In this paper, progress towards effective anti-tick vaccines is reviewed in the light of emerging data from studies including heterologous tick challenge. Taken together, these studies indicate that the decades-long search for a universal tick vaccine is making progress, with such a vaccine likely to be based on multiple cross-reactive antigens.
authors: Centro de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Prédio 43421, Porto Alegre 91501-970, RS, Brazil.
authors: Luís F
authors: LF
authors: Parizi
authors: Naftaly W
authors: NW
authors: Githaka
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Logullo
authors: Satoru
authors: S
authors: Konnai
authors: Aoi
authors: A
authors: Masuda
authors: Kazuhiko
authors: K
authors: Ohashi
authors: Itabajara
authors: I
authors: da Silva Vaz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000276:immunology; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D048494:Rhipicephalus / Q000276:immunology; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000517:prevention & control; D013987:Ticks / Q000276:immunology*; D014612:Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; C085065:BM86 protein, Boophilus; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014612:Vaccines