Tick and Host Derived Compounds Detected in the Cement Complex Substance.

Margarita Villar,Dina Karen Barros-Picanço,Lourdes Mateos-Hernández,Isabel G Fernández De Mera,Octavio Merino,Iván Pacheco,Marinela Contreras,José Francisco Lima-Barbero,Pilar Alberdi,Agustín Estrada-Peña,Eduardo Prado,José De La Fuente,Alejandro Cabezas-Cruz,Sara Artigas-Jerónimo

doi:10.3390/biom10040555

Abstract

Ticks are obligate hematophagous arthropods and vectors of pathogens affecting human and animal health worldwide. Cement is a complex protein polymerization substance secreted by ticks with antimicrobial properties and a possible role in host attachment, sealing the feeding lesion, facilitating feeding and pathogen transmission, and protection from host immune and inflammatory responses. The biochemical properties of tick cement during feeding have not been fully characterized. In this study, we characterized the proteome of Rhipicephalus microplus salivary glands (sialome) and cement (cementome) together with their physicochemical properties at different adult female parasitic stages. The results showed the combination of tick and host derived proteins and other biomolecules such as α-Gal in cement composition, which varied during the feeding process. We propose that these compounds may synergize in cement formation, solidification and maintenance to facilitate attachment, feeding, interference with host immune response and detachment. These results advanced our knowledge of the complex tick cement composition and suggested that tick and host derived compounds modulate cement properties throughout tick feeding.

Highlights

Ticks (Arthropoda: Ixodida) are obligate hematophagous arthropods and vectors of pathogens affecting human and animal health as well as animal welfare and production worldwide [1,2,3,4]
The sialome and cementome of R. microplus female ticks collected at different feeding stages were characterized by proteomics analysis using reverse phase liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (RP–LC–MS/MS) using an ekspertTM nanoLC 415 system coupled on line with a 6600 TripleTOF mass spectrometer (Ab Sciex, Framingham, MA, USA) through information-cyclic data independent acquisition (DIA) followed by sequential windowed data independent acquisition of the total high-resolution mass spectra (SWATH)-mass spectrometry (MS)
Proteomics was used for the identification, quantitation, functional annotation, and assignment to putative developmentally relevant processes based on novel methodology based on the representation profile of sialome and cementome proteins derived from bovine host and tick

Summary

Introduction

Ticks (Arthropoda: Ixodida) are obligate hematophagous arthropods and vectors of pathogens affecting human and animal health as well as animal welfare and production worldwide [1,2,3,4]. The spread of ticks at different geographical scales increases the risk of pathogen transmission to humans and animals since new colonization events may happen in areas with low awareness towards the diseases caused by these pathogens [5]. As recently supported by mechanistic studies [27], feeding of ixodid ticks begins with the secretion through inserted mouthparts of cement salivary proteins [28]. Cement is a complex substance secreted by most ticks of the family Ixodidae including Rhipicephalus spp. to anchor their mouthparts to the host skin [29]. The cement has adhesive properties but has been proposed to have a possible role in antimicrobial properties, seals the lesion during feeding, facilitates feeding and pathogen transmission, and protects ticks from host immune and inflammatory responses [22,29]. The biochemical properties of tick cement during different ectoparasite feeding stages have not been fully characterized

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