Abstract
Ticks are blood-sucking arthropods that have developed myriad of strategies to get a blood meal from the vertebrate host. They first attach to the host skin, select a bite site for a blood meal, create a feeding niche at the bite site, secrete plethora of molecules in its saliva and then starts feeding. On the other side, host defenses will try to counter-attack and stop tick feeding at the bite site. In this constant battle between ticks and the host, arthropods successfully pacify the host and completes a blood meal and then replete after full engorgement. In this review, we discuss some of the known and emerging roles for arthropod components such as cement, salivary proteins, lipocalins, HSP70s, OATPs, and extracellular vesicles/exosomes in facilitating successful blood feeding from ticks. In addition, we discuss how tick-borne pathogens modulate(s) these components to infect the vertebrate host. Understanding the biology of arthropod blood feeding and molecular interactions at the tick-host interface during pathogen transmission is very important. This information would eventually lead us in the identification of candidates for the development of transmission-blocking vaccines to prevent diseases caused by medically important vector-borne pathogens.
Highlights
Ticks are blood-feeding arthropods that transmits various bacterial, viral and protozoan pathogens to humans and animals (Azad, 2007; Wikel, 2013; Neelakanta and Sultana, 2015; Schneider et al, 2021; Sosa et al, 2021)
Tick biting mouthparts will cut the host skin and superficial blood capillaries/vessels that results in the leak of blood (Hurd, 2010; Simo et al, 2017)
Type III acini cells are associated to be involved in the development and replication of tick-borne pathogens (Fawcett et al, 1981; Bowman and Sauer, 2004; Sonenshine and Roe, 2014; Simo et al, 2017). These studies indicate the importance of tick salivary gland cells in blood feeding, mating and interactions with pathogens
Summary
Ticks are blood-feeding arthropods that transmits various bacterial, viral and protozoan pathogens to humans and animals (Azad, 2007; Wikel, 2013; Neelakanta and Sultana, 2015; Schneider et al, 2021; Sosa et al, 2021). Ticks secrete a plethora of components into saliva that facilitates them in acquiring a blood meal from the vertebrate host. These components include several antiimmunomodulatory, anti-vasodilatory, anti-coagulants, anticomplement factors and anti-platelet aggregation factors (Schoeler and Wikel, 2001; Brossard and Wikel, 2004; Wikel, 2013; Murfin and Fikrig, 2017; Simo et al, 2017; Nuttall, 2019). We will discuss the role of cement proteins, salivary family proteins, lipocalins, HSP70s, OATPs, and extracellular vesicles/exosomes in tick blood feeding and pathogen transmission. Due to the space limitation and availability of vast amount of literature, several of the other important articles related to this topic are not discussed
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