Štibrániová Iveta, Bartíková Pavlína, Holíková Viera, Kazimírová Mária
Biomedical Research Center, Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Front Physiol. 2019 Jul 3;10:830. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00830. eCollection 2019.
Ticks are obligatory blood-feeding ectoparasites, causing blood loss and skin damage in their hosts. In addition, ticks also transmit a number of various pathogenic microorganisms that cause serious diseases in humans and animals. Ticks evolved a wide array of salivary bioactive compounds that, upon injection into the host skin, inhibit or modulate host reactions such as hemostasis, inflammation and wound healing. Modulation of the tick attachment site in the host skin involves mainly molecules which affect physiological processes orchestrated by cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. Suppressing host defense reactions is crucial for tick survival and reproduction. Furthermore, pharmacologically active compounds in tick saliva have a promising therapeutic potential for treatment of some human diseases connected with disorders in hemostasis and immune system. These disorders are often associated to alterations in signaling pathways and dysregulation or overexpression of specific cytokines which, in turn, affect mechanisms of angiogenesis, cell motility and cytoskeletal regulation. Moreover, tick salivary molecules were found to exert cytotoxic and cytolytic effects on various tumor cells and have anti-angiogenic properties. Elucidation of the mode of action of tick bioactive molecules on the regulation of cell processes in their mammalian hosts could provide new tools for understanding the complex changes leading to immune disorders and cancer. Tick bioactive molecules may also be exploited as new pharmacological inhibitors of the signaling pathways of cytokines and thus help alleviate patient discomfort and increase patient survival. We review the current knowledge about tick salivary peptides and proteins that have been identified and functionally characterized in and/or models and their therapeutic perspective.
蜱是专性吸血的体外寄生虫，会导致宿主失血和皮肤损伤。此外，蜱还传播多种致病微生物，这些微生物会在人和动物身上引发严重疾病。蜱进化出了一系列唾液生物活性化合物，注入宿主皮肤后，这些化合物会抑制或调节宿主的反应，如止血、炎症和伤口愈合。蜱对宿主皮肤附着部位的调节主要涉及影响由细胞因子、趋化因子和生长因子协调的生理过程的分子。抑制宿主防御反应对蜱的生存和繁殖至关重要。此外，蜱唾液中的药理活性化合物在治疗一些与止血和免疫系统紊乱相关的人类疾病方面具有广阔的治疗潜力。这些紊乱通常与信号通路的改变以及特定细胞因子的失调或过表达有关，进而影响血管生成、细胞运动和细胞骨架调节机制。此外，发现蜱唾液分子对各种肿瘤细胞具有细胞毒性和细胞溶解作用，并具有抗血管生成特性。阐明蜱生物活性分子对其哺乳动物宿主细胞过程调节的作用方式，可为理解导致免疫紊乱和癌症的复杂变化提供新工具。蜱生物活性分子也可作为细胞因子信号通路的新型药理抑制剂加以利用，从而帮助减轻患者不适并提高患者生存率。我们综述了目前关于蜱唾液肽和蛋白质的知识，这些肽和蛋白质已在体内和/或体外模型中得到鉴定和功能表征，以及它们的治疗前景。
