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Section Symposium

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

Enigmatic Bridge of Exo-Endo: Extracellular Vesicles in Arthropod Physiology and Control

Identification of tick antigens after vaccination with tick extracellular vesicles in white-tailed deer

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
10:35 AM – 10:55 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 222 C, PCC
Oral Presentation

Current tick control measures are focused on the use of synthetic acaricides. Nevertheless, the emergence of acaricide resistance and the wildlife movement of tick populations to new areas has precluded the efficient management of ticks. Thus, host targeted non-chemical control measures that can reliably reduce ticks within wild reservoirs are needed. This project aims to evaluate extracellular vesicles (EVs) from Amblyomma americanum as vaccine candidates and identify antigenic proteins. Female A. americanum were fed on 1-year-old WTD for 5 days on three different infestations. Salivary glands (SG) and midguts (MG) from 5-day fed ticks were cultured ex vivo in vesicle free-tick media and EVs were isolated by ultracentrifugation. Each WTD was vaccinated at day 0 and boosted at 28 and 49 days. Two control deer were injected with adjuvant and PBS only. Serum from day 57 from all the vaccinated and one control animal were used to immunoprecipitate antigenic proteins. Proteomic analysis of immunoprecipitated proteins identified 7 antigenic proteins in SG EVs and one in MG EVs that were statistically significant and unique to vaccinated serum/animals. Additionally, 2 antigenic proteins in MG EVs and 24 SG EV proteins show antigenic potential. These results indicate that EVs from tick salivary and midgut ex vivo cultures harbor antigenic proteins that confer long lasting antibodies levels, which could be exploited in the design of anti-tick vaccines.