Department of Animal Health, Unit of Veterinary Protozoology, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
PLoS Pathog. 2010 Jun 3;6(6):e1000926. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000926.
Tsetse flies are the notorious transmitters of African trypanosomiasis, a disease caused by the Trypanosoma parasite that affects humans and livestock on the African continent. Metacyclic infection rates in natural tsetse populations with Trypanosoma brucei, including the two human-pathogenic subspecies, are very low, even in epidemic situations. Therefore, the infected fly/host contact frequency is a key determinant of the transmission dynamics. As an obligate blood feeder, tsetse flies rely on their complex salivary potion to inhibit host haemostatic reactions ensuring an efficient feeding. The results of this experimental study suggest that the parasite might promote its transmission through manipulation of the tsetse feeding behavior by modifying the saliva composition. Indeed, salivary gland Trypanosoma brucei-infected flies display a significantly prolonged feeding time, thereby enhancing the likelihood of infecting multiple hosts during the process of a single blood meal cycle. Comparison of the two major anti-haemostatic activities i.e. anti-platelet aggregation and anti-coagulation activity in these flies versus non-infected tsetse flies demonstrates a significant suppression of these activities as a result of the trypanosome-infection status. This effect was mainly related to the parasite-induced reduction in salivary gland gene transcription, resulting in a strong decrease in protein content and related biological activities. Additionally, the anti-thrombin activity and inhibition of thrombin-induced coagulation was even more severely hampered as a result of the trypanosome infection. Indeed, while naive tsetse saliva strongly inhibited human thrombin activity and thrombin-induced blood coagulation, saliva from T. brucei-infected flies showed a significantly enhanced thrombinase activity resulting in a far less potent anti-coagulation activity. These data clearly provide evidence for a trypanosome-mediated modification of the tsetse salivary composition that results in a drastically reduced anti-haemostatic potential and a hampered feeding performance which could lead to an increase of the vector/host contact and parasite transmission in field conditions.
采采蝇是非洲锥虫病的臭名昭著的传播者,这种疾病是由锥虫寄生虫引起的,影响非洲大陆的人类和牲畜。天然采采蝇种群中感染布氏锥虫的循环感染率非常低,包括两种人类致病性亚种,即使在流行情况下也是如此。因此,受感染的苍蝇/宿主接触频率是传播动力学的关键决定因素。作为一种专性血液饲料,采采蝇依靠其复杂的唾液来抑制宿主的止血反应,以确保有效的进食。这项实验研究的结果表明,寄生虫可能通过改变唾液成分来操纵采采蝇的取食行为,从而促进其传播。事实上,感染唾液腺的布氏锥虫采采蝇显示出明显延长的取食时间,从而增加了在单次血餐循环过程中感染多个宿主的可能性。与未感染的采采蝇相比,这些感染唾液腺的采采蝇的两种主要抗止血活性(即抗血小板聚集和抗凝血活性)的比较表明,由于寄生虫感染状态,这些活性受到显著抑制。这种效应主要与寄生虫诱导的唾液腺基因转录减少有关,导致蛋白质含量和相关生物活性的强烈下降。此外,由于寄生虫感染,抗凝血酶活性和抑制凝血酶诱导的凝血作用受到更大的阻碍。事实上,虽然未感染的采采蝇唾液强烈抑制人凝血酶活性和凝血酶诱导的血液凝固,但感染布氏锥虫的采采蝇唾液显示出明显增强的凝血酶酶活性,导致抗凝活性大大降低。这些数据清楚地证明了锥虫介导的采采蝇唾液成分的修饰,导致抗止血潜力大大降低,取食性能受损,这可能导致在田间条件下增加媒介/宿主接触和寄生虫传播。
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