Abstract
Tick-transmitted pathogens cause infectious diseases in both humans and animals. Different types of adaptive immune mechanisms could be induced in hosts by these microorganisms, triggered either directly by pathogen antigens or indirectly through soluble factors, such as cytokines and/or chemokines, secreted by host cells as response. Adaptive immunity effectors, such as antibody secretion and cytotoxic and/or T helper cell responses, are mainly involved in the late and long-lasting protective immune response. Proteins and/or epitopes derived from pathogens and tick vectors have been isolated and characterized for the immune response induced in different hosts. This review was focused on the interactions between tick-borne pathogenic hemoparasites and different host effector mechanisms of T- and/or B cell-mediated adaptive immunity, describing the efforts to define immunodominant proteins or epitopes for vaccine development and/or immunotherapeutic purposes. A better understanding of these mechanisms of host immunity could lead to the assessment of possible new immunotherapies for these pathogens as well as to the prediction of possible new candidate vaccine antigens.
Highlights
Rickettsia genus includes an expanding number of species differing in antigenic and microbiological characteristics, ecology, distribution pathogenicity and association with arthropod hosts
The results showed that humoral immunity in humans is effective against the intracellular pathogen E. chaffeensis, suggesting that these anti-E. chaffeensis human monoclonal antibodies could be potential candidates for immunotherapy
Host immune response could interact with Babesia spp., Rickettsia spp., Anaplasma spp., Erlichia spp. and Theileria spp. using different cells and/or molecules responsible for innate or adaptive immunity
Summary
Immune Response to Tick-Borne Hemoparasites: Host Adaptive Immune Response Mechanisms as Potential Targets for Therapies and Vaccines. Alessandra Torina 1,2 , Valeria Blanda 2,3,*, Sara Villari 3 , Antonio Piazza 3, Francesco La Russa 3 , Francesca Grippi 1 , Marco Pio La Manna 4, Diana Di Liberto 4 , José de la Fuente 5,6 and Guido Sireci 4. Received: 20 October 2020; Accepted: 12 November 2020; Published: 20 November 2020
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