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Current Opinion in Insect Science Apr 2022Arthropods, including mosquitoes, sand flies, tsetse flies, and ticks are vectors of many bacterial, parasitic, and viral pathogens that cause serious disease in humans... (Review)
Review
Arthropods, including mosquitoes, sand flies, tsetse flies, and ticks are vectors of many bacterial, parasitic, and viral pathogens that cause serious disease in humans and animals. Their microbiota, that is, all microorganisms that dwell within their tissues, can impact vector immunity and susceptibility to pathogen infection. Historically, host-pathogen-microbiota interactions have not been well described, with little known about mechanism. In this review, we highlight recent advances in understanding how individual microorganisms and microbial communities interact with vectors and human pathogens, the mechanisms they utilize to achieve these effects, and the potential for exploiting these interactions to control pathogen transmission. These studies fill important knowledge gaps and further our understanding of the roles that the vector microbiota plays in pathogen transmission.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Microbiota; Mosquito Vectors; Vertebrates
PubMed: 35065286
DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2022.100875 -
Viruses Jun 2017Most viruses in the genus are horizontally transmitted between hematophagous arthropods and vertebrate hosts, but some are maintained in arthropod- or... (Review)
Review
Most viruses in the genus are horizontally transmitted between hematophagous arthropods and vertebrate hosts, but some are maintained in arthropod- or vertebrate-restricted transmission cycles. Flaviviruses maintained by vertebrate-only transmission are commonly referred to as no known vector (NKV) flaviviruses. Fourteen species and two subtypes of NKV flaviviruses are recognized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), and Tamana bat virus potentially belongs to this group. NKV flaviviruses have been isolated in nature almost exclusively from bats and rodents; exceptions are the two isolates of Dakar bat virus recovered from febrile humans and the recent isolations of Sokoluk virus from field-collected ticks, which raises questions as to whether it should remain classified as an NKV flavivirus. There is evidence to suggest that two other NKV flaviviruses, Entebbe bat virus and Yokose virus, may also infect arthropods in nature. The best characterized bat- and rodent-associated NKV flaviviruses are Rio Bravo and Modoc viruses, respectively, but both have received limited research attention compared to many of their arthropod-infecting counterparts. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of NKV flaviviruses, placing a particular emphasis on their classification, host range, geographic distribution, replication kinetics, pathogenesis, transmissibility and molecular biology.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Chiroptera; Disease Transmission, Infectious; Flaviviridae Infections; Flavivirus; Rodentia
PubMed: 28635667
DOI: 10.3390/v9060154 -
Biochemistry Feb 2017Arthropods, especially ticks and mosquitoes, are the vectors for a number of parasitic and viral human diseases, including malaria, sleeping sickness, Dengue, and Zika,... (Review)
Review
Arthropods, especially ticks and mosquitoes, are the vectors for a number of parasitic and viral human diseases, including malaria, sleeping sickness, Dengue, and Zika, yet arthropods show tremendous individual variation in their capacity to transmit disease. A key factor in this capacity is the group of genetically encoded immune factors that counteract infection by the pathogen. Arthropod-specific pattern recognition receptors and protease cascades detect and respond to infection. Proteins such as antimicrobial peptides, thioester-containing proteins, and transglutaminases effect responses such as lysis, phagocytosis, melanization, and agglutination. Effector responses are initiated by damage signals such as reactive oxygen species signaling from epithelial cells and recognized by cell surface receptors on hemocytes. Antiviral immunity is primarily mediated by siRNA pathways but coupled with interferon-like signaling, antimicrobial peptides, and thioester-containing proteins. Molecular mechanisms of immunity are closely linked to related traits of longevity and fertility, and arthropods have the capacity for innate immunological memory. Advances in understanding vector immunity can be leveraged to develop novel control strategies for reducing the rate of transmission of both ancient and emerging threats to global health.
Topics: Animals; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Arthropod Proteins; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Fertility; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Immunity, Innate; Insect Proteins; Peptide Hydrolases; Phagocytosis; Reactive Oxygen Species; Receptors, Pattern Recognition
PubMed: 28072517
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.6b00870 -
Current Opinion in Insect Science Aug 2018Citizen-collected arthropod vectors are useful for epidemiological studies of vector-borne disease, especially since the vectors encountered by the public are the subset... (Review)
Review
Citizen-collected arthropod vectors are useful for epidemiological studies of vector-borne disease, especially since the vectors encountered by the public are the subset of vectors in nature that have a disproportionate impact on health. Programs integrating educational efforts with collecting efforts may be particularly effective for public health initiatives, resulting in an empowered public with knowledge of vector-borne disease prevention. Citizen science programs have been successfully implemented for the collection of unprecedented sample sets of mosquitos, ticks, and triatomines. Cyber infrastructure employed in digital epidemiology-including websites, email, mobile phone apps, and social media platforms-has facilitated vector citizen science initiatives to assess disease risk over vast spatial and temporal scales, advancing research to mitigate vector-borne disease risk.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Community Participation; Culicidae; Ticks; Triatominae
PubMed: 30551774
DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2018.05.005 -
Acta Tropica Jun 2018Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are spread by direct and/or indirect contacts between a pathogen or parasite and their hosts. Arthropod vectors have evolved as... (Review)
Review
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are spread by direct and/or indirect contacts between a pathogen or parasite and their hosts. Arthropod vectors have evolved as excellent bloodsuckers, providing an elegant transportation mode for a wide number of infectious agents. The nature of pathogen and parasite transfer and the models used to predict how a disease might spread are magnified in complexity when an arthropod vector is part of the disease cycle. One Health is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment. It would benefit from a structured analysis to address vectoring of arthropod-borne diseases as a dynamic transactional process. This review focused on how arthropod vector data can be used to better model and predict zoonotic disease outbreaks. With enhanced knowledge to describe arthropod vector disease transfer, researchers will have a better understanding about how to model disease outbreaks. As public health research evolves to include more social-ecological systems, the roles of society, ecology, epidemiology, pathogen/parasite evolution and animal behavior can be better captured in the research design. Overall, because of more collaborative data collection processes on arthropod vectors, disease modeling can better predict conditions where EIDs will occur.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Disease Outbreaks; Ecological Parameter Monitoring; Ecosystem; Humans; Models, Biological; One Health; Zoonoses
PubMed: 29454734
DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2018.02.015 -
Infectious Disease Clinics of North... Mar 2019Rickettsia are small, obligately intracellular, gram-negative bacilli. They are distributed among a variety of hematophagous arthropod vectors and cause illness... (Review)
Review
Rickettsia are small, obligately intracellular, gram-negative bacilli. They are distributed among a variety of hematophagous arthropod vectors and cause illness throughout the world. Rickettsioses present as an acute undifferentiated febrile illness and are often accompanied by headache, myalgias, and malaise. Cutaneous manifestations include rash and eschar, which both occur at varying incidence depending on the infecting species. Serology is the mainstay of diagnosis, and the indirect immunofluorescence assay is the test of choice. Reactive antibodies are seldom present during early illness, so testing should be performed on both acute-phase and convalescent-phase sera. Doxycycline is the treatment of choice.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Arthropod Vectors; Doxycycline; Humans; Rickettsia Infections; Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
PubMed: 30712763
DOI: 10.1016/j.idc.2018.10.010 -
Nature Reviews. Microbiology Mar 2005Diseases that are transmitted by arthropods cause severe morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The burden of many of these diseases is borne largely by... (Review)
Review
Diseases that are transmitted by arthropods cause severe morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The burden of many of these diseases is borne largely by developing countries. Advances in vector genomics offer new promise for the control of arthropod vectors of disease. Radical changes in vector-biology research are required if scientists are to exploit genomic data and implement changes in public health.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Communicable Disease Control; Communicable Diseases; Genomics; Humans
PubMed: 15703759
DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1101 -
Advances in Parasitology 2024For over a century, vector ecology has been a mainstay of vector-borne disease control. Much of this research has focused on the sensory ecology of blood-feeding... (Review)
Review
For over a century, vector ecology has been a mainstay of vector-borne disease control. Much of this research has focused on the sensory ecology of blood-feeding arthropods (black flies, mosquitoes, ticks, etc.) with terrestrial vertebrate hosts. Of particular interest are the cues and sensory systems that drive host seeking and host feeding behaviours as they are critical for a vector to locate and feed from a host. An important yet overlooked component of arthropod vector ecology are the phenotypic changes observed in infected vectors that increase disease transmission. While our fundamental understanding of sensory mechanisms in disease vectors has drastically increased due to recent advances in genome engineering, for example, the advent of CRISPR-Cas9, and high-throughput "big data" approaches (genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, etc.), we still do not know if and how parasites manipulate vector behaviour. Here, we review the latest research on arthropod vector sensory systems and propose key mechanisms that disease agents may alter to increase transmission.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Humans; Arthropods; Vector Borne Diseases; Host-Parasite Interactions
PubMed: 38754927
DOI: 10.1016/bs.apar.2024.02.003 -
Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases... Nov 2020Eventually there may be a broadly acceptable, even perfected, substitute for the human host requirement for direct feeding experiments by arthropods, most notably... (Review)
Review
Eventually there may be a broadly acceptable, even perfected, substitute for the human host requirement for direct feeding experiments by arthropods, most notably mosquitoes. However, for now, direct and indirect feeding on human volunteers is an important, if not essential, tool in vector biology research (VBR). This article builds on the foundational publication by Achee et al. (2015) covering considerations for the use of human participants in VBR pursuits. The authors introduced methods involving human participation in VBR, while detailing human-landing collections (catches) as a prime example. Benedict et al. (2018) continued this theme with an overview of human participation and considerations for research that involves release of mosquito vectors into the environment. In this study, we discuss another important aspect of human use in VBR activities: considerations addressing studies that require an arthropod to feed on a live human host. Using mosquito studies as our principal example, in this study, we discuss the tremendous importance and value of this approach to support and allow study of a wide variety of factors and interactions related to our understanding of vector-borne diseases and their control. This includes establishment of laboratory colonies for test populations, characterization of essential nutrients that contribute to mosquito fitness, characterization of blood-feeding (biting) behavior and pathogen transmission, parameterization for modeling transmission dynamics, evaluation of human host attraction and/or agents that repel, and the effectiveness of antivector or parasite therapeutic drug studies.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Ethics Committees, Research; Feeding Behavior; Humans; Research Personnel; Vector Borne Diseases
PubMed: 32905735
DOI: 10.1089/vbz.2020.2620 -
Parasites & Vectors Sep 2011The saliva of haematophagous arthropods contains an array of anti-haemostatic, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory molecules that contribute to the success of the... (Review)
Review
The saliva of haematophagous arthropods contains an array of anti-haemostatic, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory molecules that contribute to the success of the blood meal. The saliva of haematophagous arthropods is also involved in the transmission and the establishment of pathogens in the host and in allergic responses. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the pharmacological activity and immunogenic properties of the main salivary proteins characterised in various haematophagous arthropod species. The potential biological and epidemiological applications of these immunogenic salivary molecules will be discussed with an emphasis on their use as biomarkers of exposure to haematophagous arthropod bites or vaccine candidates that are liable to improve host protection against vector-borne diseases.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Proteins; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Bites and Stings; Hemostasis; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Salivary Proteins and Peptides
PubMed: 21951834
DOI: 10.1186/1756-3305-4-187