Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a Lyme disease receptor called TROSPA that is used by disease agents to invade ticks.
Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease in the United States, is caused by spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which also cause arthritis in humans. The purpose of the study, published November 12 in the journal Cell, was to identify how Lyme disease pathogens survive inside ticks.
"We identified a receptor inside the tick gut that the spirochete bacteria use to colonize or invade ticks," said principal investigator Erol Fikrig, M.D., professor of internal medicine/rheumatology and in the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine. "When we eliminated or blocked the receptor in the ticks, they were no longer able to carry the Lyme disease agent Borellia burgforferi."
"This opens up potential new avenues to disrupt the Borellia's life cycle and offers strategies for improving diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease," Fikrig added.