Project description:One of the most important vectors of the Brazilian Spotted Fever, the tick Amblyomma aureolatum in Brazil was used in this study. We laboratorial controlled the infection of adult females of A. aureolatum with the virulent brazilian strain Taiacu of Rickettsia rickettsii. The group of ticks was divided into 2 testing groups, group 2 (G2) composed of adult females incubated at 35°C for 3 days that were not fed after molting to adults and group 3 (G3) composed of adult females fed on its favorite natural host, the dog (Canis familiaris) also for 3 days. Right after incubation or feeding, ticks were individually dissected and all internal organs were transferred to RNAlater® Solution (Life Technologies) until gDNA and total RNA simultaneously isolation. A total of 14 ticks of each group were analyzed in two biological replicates (7 ticks each). Dye-swap was also applied to construct the technical replicate of each biological sample
Project description:One of the most important vectors of the Brazilian Spotted Fever, the tick Amblyomma aureolatum in Brazil was used in this study. We laboratorial controlled the infection of adult females of A. aureolatum with the virulent brazilian strain Taiacu of Rickettsia rickettsii. The group of ticks was divided into 2 testing groups, group 1 (G1) composed of adult females incubated at 25°C for 3 days and group 2 (G2) composed of adult females incubated at 35°C for 3 days. Right after incubation of both groups, ticks were individually dissected and all internal organs were transferred to RNAlater® Solution (Life Technologies) until gDNA and total RNA simultaneously isolation. A total of 14 ticks of each group were analyzed in two biological replicates (7 ticks each). Dye-swap was also applied to construct the technical replicate of each biological sample
Project description:One of the most important vectors of the Brazilian Spotted Fever, the tick Amblyomma aureolatum in Brazil was used in this study. We laboratorial controlled the infection of adult females of A. aureolatum with the virulent brazilian strain Taiacu of Rickettsia rickettsii. The group of ticks was divided into 2 testing groups, group 2 (G2) composed of adult females incubated at 35°C for 3 days that were not fed after molting to adults and group 3 (G3) composed of adult females fed on its favorite natural host, the dog (Canis familiaris) also for 3 days. Right after incubation or feeding, ticks were individually dissected and all internal organs were transferred to RNAlater® Solution (Life Technologies) until gDNA and total RNA simultaneously isolation. A total of 14 ticks of each group were analyzed in two biological replicates (7 ticks each). Dye-swap was also applied to construct the technical replicate of each biological sample total RNA from both experimental samples (G2 and G3) was used for hybridization to dual channel arrays. Two biological replicates were used for each experimental group.
Project description:One of the most important vectors of the Brazilian Spotted Fever, the tick Amblyomma aureolatum in Brazil was used in this study. We laboratorial controlled the infection of adult females of A. aureolatum with the virulent brazilian strain Taiacu of Rickettsia rickettsii. The group of ticks was divided into 2 testing groups, group 1 (G1) composed of adult females incubated at 25°C for 3 days and group 2 (G2) composed of adult females incubated at 35°C for 3 days. Right after incubation of both groups, ticks were individually dissected and all internal organs were transferred to RNAlater® Solution (Life Technologies) until gDNA and total RNA simultaneously isolation. A total of 14 ticks of each group were analyzed in two biological replicates (7 ticks each). Dye-swap was also applied to construct the technical replicate of each biological sample total RNA from both experimental samples (G1 and G2) was used for hybridization to dual channel arrays. Two biological replicates were used for each experimental group.
Project description:Four Amblyomma sabanerae ticks collected from a turtle (Kinosternon sp.) in San Miguel, El Salvador, were found by molecular analysis to be infected by Rickettsia bellii. We provide the first report of Rickettsia bellii in Central America, and the first report of a Rickettsia species in El Salvador.
Project description:BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of rickettsia and hantavirus in wild rodents and arthropods in response to an outbreak of acute unidentified febrile illness among Indians in the Halataikwa Indian Reserve, northwest of the Mato Grosso state, in the Brazilian Amazon. Where previously surveillance data showed serologic evidence of rickettsia and hantavirus human infection. METHODS: The arthropods were collected from the healthy Indian population and by flagging vegetation in grassland or woodland along the peridomestic environment of the Indian reserve. Wild rodents were live-trapped in an area bordering the reserve limits, due the impossibility of capturing wild animals in the Indian reserve. The wild rodents were identified based on external and cranial morphology and karyotype. DNA was extracted from spleen or liver samples of rodents and from invertebrate (tick and louse) pools, and the molecular characterization of the rickettsia was through PCR and DNA sequencing of fragments of two rickettsial genes (gltA and ompA). In relation to hantavirus, rodent serum samples were serologically screened by IgG ELISA using the Araraquara-N antigen and total RNA was extracted from lung samples of IgG-positive rodents. The amplification of the complete S segment was performed. RESULTS: A total of 153 wild rodents, 121 louse, and 36 tick specimens were collected in 2010. Laguna Negra hantavirus was identified in Calomys callidus rodents and Rickettsia bellii, Rickettsia amblyommii were identified in Amblyomma cajennense ticks. CONCLUSIONS: Zoonotic diseases such as HCPS and spotted fever rickettsiosis are a public health threat and should be considered in outbreaks and acute febrile illnesses among Indian populations. The presence of the genome of rickettsias and hantavirus in animals in this Indian reserve reinforces the need to include these infectious agents in outbreak investigations of febrile cases in Indian populations.
Project description:Ticks are vectors of different pathogens causing human and animal diseases. Particularly, Rickettsia slovaca is zoonotic infectious bacterium transmitted by Dermacentor ticks, agent of tick-borne lymphadenopathy (TIBOLA), common across Europe. Current studies point to extreme complexity of bacterial induced effects in tick host. Systems biology tools, including proteomics, greatly contribute to understanding of molecular details of pathogen-tick-host interactions. Herein we compared laboratory-infected ticks with uninfected control after four weeks of incubation. Propagation of R. slovaca was confirmed by quantitative PCR. Using DNA was confirmed infection with R. slovaca. By proteomic approach, we discovered 33 differentially abundant gel spots, 23 of them accumulated upon artificial infection with R. slovaca. Modest 6.9% of tick proteome was affected. The protein localizations showing that eight proteins spots might be secreted, three cytoplasmic, two mitochondrial, six likely having multiple localizations, one cell membrane and one nucleus. We identified following proteins defensin, serpins, glycine-rich protein, heat shock protein involved in artificially infected tick vector, Dermacentor reticulatus. Discovered differentially abundant proteins should be further evaluated as targets to block the transmission of bacterial pathogen.
Project description:Studies investigating rickettsial infections in ticks parasitizing wild animals in the Northeast region of Brazil have been confined to the detection of Rickettsia amblyommii in immature stages of Amblyomma longirostre collected from birds in the state of Bahia, and in immatures and females of Amblyomma auricularium collected from the striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) and armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) in the state of Pernambuco. The current study extends the distribution of R. amblyommii (strain Aranha), which was detected in A. longirostre collected from the thin-spined porcupine Chaetomys subspinosus and the hairy dwarf porcupine Coendou insidiosus. In addition, we report the first detection of Rickettsia bellii in adults of A. longirostre collected from C. insidiosus in the state of Bahia.
Project description:In the present study, attempts to isolate Rickettsia in cell culture were performed individually in seven specimens of Haemaphysalis juxtakochi ticks collected in the state of São Paulo (southeastern Brazil). Rickettsia was successfully isolated by the shell vial technique and established in Vero cell culture from six ticks (six isolates). DNA extracted from infected cells of these isolates was tested by PCR and DNA sequencing, using genus-specific Rickettsia primers targeting the genes gltA, htrA, ompA, and ompB. After the generated sequences were compared with available sequences in GenBank, five out of the six isolates were identified as Rickettsia bellii (isolates HJ#1, HJ#2, HJ#3, HJ#4, and HJ#7). The sixth isolate (HJ#5) was closest to Rickettsia sp. strain R300, previously detected in H. juxtakochi in northern Brazil, and to Rickettsia rhipicephali, isolated from ticks in the United States. Following recent gene sequence-based criteria proposed for the identification of Rickettsia isolates, both isolate HJ#5 and strain R300 were identified as South American strains of R. rhipicephali, which was confirmed in this continent for the first time. Isolation of R. bellii from H. juxtakochi ticks, added to eight other tick species that have been reported to be infected with this bacterium in Brazil, indicates that R. bellii is indeed the most frequent Rickettsia species infecting ticks in Brazil. Currently, the role of both R. rhipicephali and R. bellii as human pathogens is regarded as unknown.
Project description:Ixodid ticks were collected from vegetation and from humans, wild and domestic mammals in a rural area in the semi-arid Argentine Chaco in late spring 2006 to evaluate their potential role as vectors of Spotted Fever Group (SFG) rickettsiae. A total of 233 adult ticks, identified as Amblyomma parvum, Amblyomma tigrinum and Amblyomma pseudoconcolor, was examined for Rickettsia spp. We identified an SFG rickettsia of unknown pathogenicity, "Candidatus Rickettsia sp. strain Argentina", in A. parvum and A. pseudoconcolor by PCR assays targeting gltA, ompA, ompB and 17-kDa outer membrane antigen rickettsial genes. Rickettsia bellii was detected in a host-seeking male of A. tigrinum. Amblyomma parvum is widespread in the study area and is a potential threat to human health.