Some tick species’ salivary glands could turn out to be important research tools for examining how viruses are conveyed to mammals from ticks, and for designing defensive medical countermeasures.
Salivary glands in Tick normally block transmission, but a new research carried out by researchers at the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) at the National Institutes of Health aims on the part of salivary glands in distributing flaviviruses from Ixodes scapularis (black-legged ticks) to mammals. The new research, posted in the mBio journal, enhances the scientists’ work posted in 2017 that showed cultured tick organs as a prototype for flavivirus infection.
Flaviviruses comprise Zika virus, dengue virus, yellow fever virus, West Nile virus, and several different viruses including Powassan virus. Powassan is the only endemic flavivirus distributed by ticks in North America, where it is believed to be a re-surfacing virus. Physicians in the U.S. have reported almost 100 cases of virus in the last decade, 50% of them in 2016–2017.
On a related note, a group of investigators from MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital) has designed a polymer that releases antibiotic and may really shorten the therapy for infection of prosthetic joint. In their latest report posted in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the scientists explain how implants created from these materials productively removed two kinds of prosthetic infection.
“Presently, almost all the infections comprising entire joint substitution prostheses need a 2-stage surgery, in which the daily activities of the patient are hugely negotiated for 4 Months to 6 Months,” claims Orhun Muratoglu, co-author of the report, to the media in an interview.
“Our discovery shows that polyethylene, the most frequently utilized weight-tolerating surface in entire joint operation, can be created to effectively and safely give out antibiotics. This implies that these completely weight-tolerating implants can be utilized to cure infection in a single process, lowering both the risk of complications and the inconvenience for patients.”
