Polli Mayara Garcia, Martins Maria Marlene, Rodrigues Vinicius da Silva, Rezende Lais Miguel, Suzin Adriane, Maia Rodrigo da Costa, Souza Ana Carolina Prado, Muñoz-Leal Sebastián, Szabó Matias Pablo Juan, Yokosawa Jonny
Laboratory of Microorganisms of Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah), Department of Microbiology, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM), Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), Uberlândia, Brazil; Post-Graduation Program in Applied Immunology and Parasitology, UFU, ICBIM, Brazil.
Laboratory of Ixodology (LabIx), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FAMEV), UFU, Brazil.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2024 Mar;15(2):102303. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2023.102303. Epub 2023 Dec 18.
Ticks are obligate hematophagous parasites that can transmit to vertebrate hosts several pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths. Among these agents, some Borrelia species some Borrelia species cause disease in humans and other vertebrate hosts; therefore, they have medical and veterinary health importance. To gather additional information on Borrelia species in Brazil, the current study aimed to detect the presence of these species in Ornithodoros cavernicolous ticks collected in September 2019 from cement pipes that are used by bats as shelter in a farm located in the midwestern region of Brazil. DNA samples obtained from 18 specimens of O. cavernicolous were subjected of two polymerase chain reactions, targeting a segment of the Borrelia fla B gene. Of the samples tested, only one (6 %, 1/18) showed amplification. The nucleotide sequence of the amplified DNA showed more than 97 % (293/300) identity with a sequence of a Borrelia sp. detected in blood collected from a bat from Macaregua Cave, Colombia, and more than 97 % (292/300) detected in lungs from vampire bats from northeastern Brazil. The deduced amino acid sequences were identical to each other. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that these sequences formed a group of Borrelia species (putatively associated with bats) that is closely related to sequences of Borrelia species of the Lyme borreliosis group. Further investigations should be carried out in order to determine whether the sequence of the Borrelia sp. we found belongs to a new taxon. It will also be of great importance to determine which vertebrate hosts, besides bats, O. cavernicolous ticks can parasitize in order to investigate whether the Borrelia sp. we found may be transmitted and cause disease to the other vertebrate hosts.
蜱是专性吸血寄生虫，可将包括病毒、细菌、原生动物和蠕虫在内的多种病原体传播给脊椎动物宿主。在这些病原体中，一些疏螺旋体物种可导致人类和其他脊椎动物宿主患病；因此，它们对医学和兽医健康具有重要意义。为了收集巴西疏螺旋体物种的更多信息，本研究旨在检测2019年9月从巴西中西部地区一个农场的水泥管中采集的洞穴钝缘蜱中这些物种的存在情况。从18个洞穴钝缘蜱标本中获得的DNA样本进行了两轮聚合酶链反应，靶向疏螺旋体fla B基因的一个片段。在测试的样本中，只有一个（6%，1/18）显示出扩增。扩增DNA的核苷酸序列与在哥伦比亚马卡雷瓜洞穴蝙蝠血液中检测到的一种疏螺旋体序列有超过97%（293/300）的同一性，与巴西东北部吸血蝙蝠肺部检测到的序列有超过97%（292/300）的同一性。推导的氨基酸序列彼此相同。系统发育分析表明，这些序列形成了一组疏螺旋体物种（可能与蝙蝠有关），与莱姆病疏螺旋体组的疏螺旋体物种序列密切相关。应进一步开展调查，以确定我们发现的疏螺旋体序列是否属于一个新的分类单元。确定洞穴钝缘蜱除了蝙蝠之外还能寄生于哪些脊椎动物宿主，对于研究我们发现的疏螺旋体是否可能传播并导致其他脊椎动物宿主患病也非常重要。
