title: Tick iron and heme metabolism - New target for an anti-tick intervention.
abstract: Ticks are blood-feeding parasites and vectors of serious human and animal diseases. Ixodes ricinus is a common tick in Europe, transmitting tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme borreliosis, anaplasmosis, or babesiosis. Immunization of hosts with recombinant tick proteins has, in theory, the potential to interfere with tick feeding and block transmission of pathogens from the tick to the host. However, the efficacy of tick antigens has, to date, not been fully sufficient to achieve this. We have focused on 11 in silico identified genes encoding proteins potentially involved in tick iron and heme metabolism. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) expression profiling was carried out to preferentially target proteins that are up-regulated during the blood meal. RNA interference (RNAi) was then used to score the relative importance of these genes in tick physiology. Finally, we performed vaccination screens to test the suitability of these proteins as vaccine candidates. These newly identified tick antigens have the potential to improve the available anti-tick vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: hajdus@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hajdusek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: sima@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Radek
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sima
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: perner@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Perner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: gabi@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Loosova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: harcubova@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Adela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harcubova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Electronic address: kopajz@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kopacek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060829:Arthropod Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D001769:Blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006418:Heme / Q000378:metabolism*; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D018884:Ixodes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D034622:RNA Interference; D011817:Rabbits; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D060829:Arthropod Proteins; D006418:Heme; D007501:Iron
keywords: Heme; Iron; RNAi; Tick; Vaccine