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ViewAttendees 6

Organized Meeting

Multistate Project NE1943: Biology, Ecology, and Management of Emerging Disease Vectors

Evaluation of extracellular vesicles as anti-tick vaccines in wildlife

Tuesday, November 7, 2023
7:35 PM – 7:50 PM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Potomac D
In-Person
Ticks and tick-borne pathogens significantly affect the public health of thousands of people in the US and impose an important economic threat to livestock worldwide. Current tick control measures are focused on the use of synthetic acaricides. Nevertheless, the emergence of acaricide resistance and the presence of wildlife as a transport to introduce tick populations into new areas has prevented the efficient management of ticks. Thus, non-chemical control measures that can reliably reduce ticks within wild reservoirs are needed. This project aims to examine the potential use of tick salivary glands- and midgut-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) as vaccine candidates against ticks. Using ex vivo organ cultures of female adult ticks’ salivary glands and midguts, we isolated EVs for the vaccination of three 2-year-old white-tailed deer. Each deer was vaccinated with 400 μg of protein (from salivary glands and midguts) and received 2 boosters at week 4 and week 7. Two control deer were injected with Adjuvant and PBS only. Serum samples were recovered every 7 days and reactivity was evaluated by Western blot and ELISA. At 58 days post vaccination/boost infested with 100 Amblyomma americanum nymphs, 50 females, and 50 males that were allowed to feed to repletion. Herein, we present the results from these experiments and discuss our findings.