mRNA vaccine will be developed to prevent ticks from spreading diseases?

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mRNA vaccine will be developed to prevent ticks from spreading diseases?

mRNA vaccine will be developed to prevent ticks from spreading diseases? Science Translational Medicine: mRNA vaccine opens up new fields to prevent ticks from spreading diseases.

Tick is a spread of zoonoses important medium. As a strict blood-sucking arthropod, ticks can bite almost all animals on land, and have a long blood-sucking time, a large amount of blood, and a complicated life history.

These characteristics enable ticks to carry the widest variety of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites; they spread more than 40 kinds of diseases, such as Lyme disease, forest encephalitis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, fever with reduced synthesis Symptoms, rickettsial disease, anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, etc., can lead to death or chronic sequelae, seriously affecting the quality of life.

Lyme disease is a natural foci disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi infection. It is usually transmitted by the black-legged tick ( I. scapularis ) as a vector.

In the United States alone, more than 40,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported each year, and the actual number of infections may be ten times higher.

Lyme disease can damage the nervous system and cause serious consequences.

The first stage of Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics, but if it develops to the second and third stages, antibiotics will not help, and the damage to the nervous system will be irreparable.

The pandemic of the COVID-19 epidemic has led to the rapid approval of mRNA vaccines.

With the large-scale application of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, people have seen the power of mRNA vaccines.

Therefore, some researchers have begun to study the preventive potential of mRNA vaccines in preventing tick-borne diseases.

November 17, 2021, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine in Science sub-Journal Science Translational Medicine published a report entitled: mRNA vaccination induces tick resistance and Prevents Transmission of Lyme disease Agent at The research paper, the paper was also selected as the current Cover paper.

The study does not target specific tick-borne disease pathogens, but against ticks , with a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery 19 kinds of protein found in the saliva of the black-legged tick (19ISP) of mRNA , the skin and bites of ticks The rapid response will limit the time for the tick to suck blood and infect the host, and it will also allow the host to quickly detect the tick bite, thereby preventing Lyme disease transmitted by the black-legged tick.

This mRNA vaccine can provide protection in guinea pigs against Lyme disease infection caused by black-legged tick bites. Because the vaccine is for black-legged ticks, not specific pathogens, it can also combat other tick-borne diseases.

mRNA vaccine will be developed to prevent ticks from spreading diseases?

Because ticks carry a large number of pathogens, tick bites can cause the spread of many diseases. Therefore, the research team did not target specific ticks-transmitted pathogens, but developed vaccines against ticks.

The Erol Fikrig team of Yale University School of Medicine and the team of Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, the founder of the mRNA vaccine, conducted research on the black-legged tick that transmits Lyme disease.

The saliva of the black-legged tick contains many types of proteins. Focus on 19 of them (19ISP) .

Using the mRNA fragments that produce these proteins as the basis of the vaccine is the same strategy adopted in the new coronavirus mRNA vaccine.

The research team then tested the protective effect of this mRNA vaccine on guinea pigs.

Because guinea pigs can be bitten by ticks and be infected with Lyme disease, guinea pigs are often used as a research model for tick-borne diseases.

Compared with guinea pigs that have not been vaccinated with mRNA vaccines, guinea pigs vaccinated with the vaccine quickly turn red at the site of the tick bite.

If the tick is removed at this time, these vaccinated guinea pigs will not be infected with Lyme disease, but nearly 50% Of unvaccinated guinea pigs can become infected.

When a tick bites and is not removed, guinea pigs vaccinated will not be infected with Lyme disease, and 60% of unvaccinated guinea pigs will be infected.

When three ticks bite and are not removed, the protective effect of the vaccine on guinea pigs will be weakened, but the ticks attached to the guinea pigs vaccinated with the vaccine cannot eat actively and fall off faster.

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When a mosquito bites you, it will immediately feel itchy, reminding you to drive away the mosquito, but often you can’t feel it when a tick bites, because the tick secretes a substance that numbs the skin.

The research team said that this mRNA vaccine will not only allow the immune system to recognize ticks, thereby preventing Lyme disease .

Moreover, the vaccine will make the bite of the tick become red and itchy quickly, making the bite of the tick become as quickly detected as a mosquito bite, thereby further helping to remove the pathogen before it spreads .

The research team said that the mRNA vaccine may provide broader protection than a vaccine against a specific pathogen, and it can also be used in combination with traditional pathogen-based vaccines to further improve protection.

Erol Fikrig , the corresponding author of the paper, said that more research will be conducted to determine that the protein in tick saliva can be used to prevent tick-borne diseases, and eventually human experiments will be conducted to determine the efficacy of the vaccine.

Paper link:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abj9827

mRNA vaccine will be developed to prevent ticks from spreading diseases?

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