A WSU team has found a protein that helps a bacteria cause anaplasmosis, a tick-borne disease, and hopes to stop it.
Anaplasmosis is a serious threat to human and animal health. It is transmitted by black-legged and western black-legged ticks, which bite infected animals and then pass the bacteria to humans. The disease can cause fever, headache, chills, muscle pain, and sometimes life-threatening complications. It can be treated with antibiotics, but many cases are not diagnosed or reported.
Most of the previous research on Anaplasma phagocytophilum has focused on how it affects mammals, but little is known about how it survives and spreads in ticks. The WSU team found that the bacteria secrete a protein called AteA, which helps them invade and reprogram tick cells. AteA interacts with a part of the cell called cortical actin, which acts like a scaffold that supports the cell's shape and movement.
The researchers also found that AteA is not needed for the bacteria to infect mammals, suggesting that it is specially adapted for tick interactions. They suspect that there are other proteins that help the bacteria switch between tick and mammal hosts.
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