Host Immunization with Recombinant Proteins to Screen Antigens for Tick Control
Ticks (Parasitiformes: Ixodida) are known for their obligate blood feeding habit and their role in transmitting pathogens to various vertebrate hosts. Tick control using chemical acaricides is extensively used particularly in livestock management, but sev
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Introduction Ticks are the primary vectors of many pathogens in animals and are considered second to mosquitoes in transmitting diseases to humans [1, 2]. Babesiosis, rickettsiosis, and tick-borne encephalitis are among the common tick-borne diseases (TBDs) that continue to affect both humans and animals worldwide [3]. Tick control is obviously an integral part of controlling these TBDs, and until now relies heavily on the application of chemical acaricides, particularly in livestock production. However, the continuous development of resistance of many tick species, as well as active concerns on chemical contamination of animal products and the environment, make this control method less desirable. Therefore, alternative methods for tick control are necessary. Vaccination against ticks and TBDs has long been considered to be a better alternative to chemical acaricides [4]. Using recombinant proteins to immunize the host, antibodies will target particular antigens in the ticks, thus offering a health and environment risk-free control method and a low tendency for resistance development in ticks [5]. For 20 years already, the first and until recently remains to be the only commercially available anti-tick vaccine utilizes the midgut protein Bm86 from the hard tick Rhiphicephalus (Boophilus) microplus [6]; however, this vaccine is ineffective against other tick species and its effectiveness against R. microplus also varies with strain [7]. A universal anti-tick vaccine that renders protection against multiple tick species is still lacking, and therefore many studies on ticks are aimed at identifying potential tick antigens. A review by Nuttall et al. [5] compared the two main types of tick antigens: exposed and concealed antigens.
Sunil Thomas (ed.), Vaccine Design: Methods and Protocols, Volume 2: Vaccines for Veterinary Diseases, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1404, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-3389-1_18, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
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Up to date, there are numerous candidate antigens with the potential of protecting the host from multiple tick species [7] and more are being identified using genomic and proteomic approaches [8, 9]. Among the promising candidate antigens is subolesin, shown to be effective not only against ticks, but to other arthropod vectors as well [10], and also in reducing the infection rate of two TBDs [11]. Vaccination against the secretory ferritin 2 of four hard tick species also showed significant results [12, 13]. This chapter describes the procedures on immunizing a laboratory animal, the rabbit, with a recombinant tick protein for the preliminary evaluation of its potential as a candidate anti-tick vaccine. In our laboratory, we are using an Escherichia coli-based expression system, the most widely used system for the synthesis of recombinant proteins [14] and will be described here in detail; however, other expression systems may be employed [15]. It is recommended that the readers refer also to the manual of the particular ex
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