Archive for the ‘Viruses’ Category

Wed Nite @ The Lab – Talk on Mosquitoes, Ticks, & Disease


Approx. 1:24:00

Wednesday Nite @ The Lab
Published on Jan 16, 2018

“Susan Paskewitz’s talk will focus on the activities of the newly created Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease. The center was established in 2017 as a response to the increasing rate of human illness caused by tick and mosquito-transmitted diseases in the region, including Lyme disease and West Nile encephalitis. In addition to these familiar problems, new ticks, mosquitoes, and pathogens have been discovered. Solving these issues will require a new generation of trained vector biologists, cooperation and collaboration among public-health professionals and scientists, and creative and innovative research to reduce human and insect contact.”

About the Speaker

Paskewitz is the director of the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease and the chair of the Department of Entomology at UW–Madison. Her research focuses on the ecology, epidemiology, and management of ticks and mosquitoes. She teaches classes in global health, medical and veterinary entomology, and the One Health concept, during which she enjoys working with undergraduate and graduate students who seek to gain experience in public health, infectious disease, and vector-biology research. Paskewitz earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale and her doctorate at the University of Georgia–Athens.

___________________

Highlights:

4:45 Believe it or not, Wisconsin used to have cases of Malaria.

Zika, discovered in 1947, wasn’t even in our hemisphere. Very few people infected until 2007 when there were 13-14 cases. 2015 it showed up in Brazil. First time a mosquito spread disease that is also sexually transmitted. A medical entomologist felt he gave it to his wife and then wrote a paper on it.

(I guess we need a medical entomologist to infect his/her wife with Lyme/MSIDS so that a paper can be written to prove sexual transmission…..) Please see:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/26/transplacental-transmission-fetal-damage-with-lyme-disease/ and https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/

UW did a lot of work on Zika. Cases in the U.S. occurred when people traveled abroad, became infected, were bit by mosquitoes here, and then spread from there. Only 63 infected people in 2016, 9 more in 2017.

Do we have the mosquitoes that can pick up the virus and transmit it? The Yellow Fever mosquito is the one transmitting Zika. The mosquito is here in U.S. but NOT in WI.  The Asian Tiger mosquito is a secondary vector that transmits the same viruses but not as well. Has a wider distribution and is a daytime feeder.

She looked in all the records – couldn’t find the Asian Tiger in Wisconsin.  It is found in Illinois and Indiana.  However, since that time they have laid many traps and found the Asian Tiger Mosquito here but she doesn’t feel they are abundant or wide spread.  She also feels they won’t survive our winters but experiments are in progress.  Females bite, lay eggs in wet aquatic spots, as larvae need water to grow.

(The same sort of diligence needs to happen in the world of Lyme.  For instance, borrelia has been found in other insects, but entomologists downplay it and say numbers are small.  This is a great example of how Lyme is treated differently then other diseases that are big money-makers for researchers.)

25:32 The Lone star tick has popped up in a number of places in WI – she doesn’t feel they will survive our winters.

Spent a lot of time talking about mosquito issues happening down South.

She admits the Center was created due to Zika.  

(Don’t be shocked when all the research dollars go to Zika & not tick borne illness despite the much higher prevalence of TBI’s in WI)

Wisconsin has cases of West Nile, La Crosse Virus, and Jamestown Canyon Virus – which has increased human cases – they don’t know why.

They are working on a bacterial based topical repellent.  Also working on using fish and copepods to eat mosquitos at the larval stage.

38:00 TICKS

Ticks transmit Lyme Disease – a lot and it’s not just in the North. Could pick it up anywhere in Wisconsin.

Please see:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/06/remembering-dr-masters-the-rebel-for-lyme-patients-who-took-on-the-cdc-single-handedly/

Map showing Deer tick population between 1907-1996 and 1907-2015 –

Our entire state is infested.  

Sky rocket of LD in WI CONFIRMED.  She admits the CDC says the cases are hugely underestimated – more like 30,000 cases per year in WI.

WI is a hotspot for newly emerging TBI – Anaplasma, Ehrlichia muris, borrelia miyamotoi (relapsing fever), Babesia divergens (in Michigan but Paskowitz feels it’s probably here too).

Anaplasma seeing 400-600 cases a year in WI.  Again, much underreporting.

44:00 talks about tick distribution maps.

Please see:  http://steveclarknd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Confounding-Debate-Over-Lyme-Disease-in-the-South-DiscoverMagazine.com_.pdf (go to page 6 and read about Speilman’s maps which are faulty but have ruled like the Iron Curtain, and have been used to keep folks from being diagnosed and treated)

They are working on a way for public to take pictures of ticks, send it to the lab and get answers.

Trying to reduce the risk….they think it’s the nymphs that do most of the transmission because they are tiny and we don’t feel them.

Larvae and nymphs love little rodents
Adults love adults, dogs, and deer

50:00 what we can do to stop LD

52:30 One experiment removed buckthorn – looked like a significant impact after first year but nothing after that.

53:20 tick tubes for mice – found a decrease in host-seeking nymphs with this seen it three years running.

Trying to come up with a do it yourself toolkit to implement methods for tick control.

55:55 Working on the tick app – to pool info to show where we are picking up the ticks so education can be more targeted.

ends @ 58:30 then questions

Funding by:  CDC, NIH, USDA, WI Dept HEalth services, WI Dep Natural resources

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, mosquitoes, research, Ticks, Viruses, Zika

Hantavirus & Tularemia Warnings Issued in San Diego County

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/hantavirus-tularemia-warnings-issued-san-diego-county-78987/

Hantavirus, tularemia warnings issued in San Diego County

by NEWS DESK
March 1, 2018

In a follow-up on two infectious disease issues in San Diego County, mice with hantavirus and tularemia positive ticks, San Diego County Vector Control has issued some updated information and warnings for the public.

Image/Thadius856
Image/Thadius856

Vector Control officials said five Western harvest mice caught in routine trapping in open fields in 4S Ranch and in the rural Black Mountain area have tested positive for hantavirus, bringing this year’s total number of rodents to test positive to 17. That is the highest number of rodents to test positive in San Diego County since 2012, when 35 mice and one meadow vole tested positive over the course of the year.

Vector Control officials said the high number was not a cause for alarm. Hantavirus is common in San Diego County, but it is mainly carried by wild mice that do not live around humans so people are rarely exposed to the virus. In addition, the 17 rodents that tested positive represent 4.8 percent of the 351 wild rodents that Vector Control has trapped  and tested this year, a figure within normally-expected ranges.

Still, officials said people should remember to protect themselves from potentially being exposed to hantavirus. The virus can cause deadly infections in people and there is no vaccine or cure for it.

Hantavirus:  An interview with Dr. Paul Ettestad (Approx. 10:30 Min)

In addition, County Vector Control officials said Friday that several more batches of ticks trapped along Lopez Canyon Trail in Sorrento Valley have tested positive for tularemia, a potentially dangerous bacterial disease also known as “rabbit fever.”

County officials are reminding people again to protect themselves and their pets from ticks — which can transmit tularemia and other diseases when they bite people — whenever they are hiking, bicycling or walking in grassy backcountry areas, on trails or in the wild.

Vector Control officials said last week that several batches of ticks trapped in routine monitoring in the area of Lopez Canyon Trail had tested positive for the disease. Because they are small, ticks are “batched” together into larger groups to conduct testing.

County officials said they posted signs warning people to protect themselves from ticks last week and have posted additional signs in the wake of the new find.

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**Comment**
While Tularemia is spread by ticks, Hanta virus so far is not:
http://health.gov.on.ca/en/public/publications/disease/hanta.aspx; however, it is interesting that this virus loves mice and well…..ticks love mice.  Time will tell.
https://securitystudiesonline.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/potential-uses-of-the-hantavirus-as-a-biological-weapon/   As it turns out, the hantavirus is not a new disease and is far more widespread than previously suspected in the United States. For example, tissues analysis has revealed that the earliest proven case of hantavirus occurred in Utah in 1959, and has been found in 32 states….From 1993 to 2004, there were 362 cases of HPS diagnosed[1] with 132 fatalities in the US alone.[2] However, HPS is also found throughout Latin America. Panama, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina have had reported cases of HPS.[3] From 1993 to 2004, there have been 1548 cases and 252 deaths throughout Latin America.[4] The hantavirus is newly discovered by modern science, but people have lived with it for years previous…..However, because USAMRIID was involved and conducted the research at Fort Detrick, HTN was grandfathered into the ongoing US bioweapons program. Despite its ability to effect military operations as demonstrated in the field, military studies of hantavirus do not appear to have gone past the research stage.[6]…the hantavirus will enter a host cell and replace itself with a negative strand of messenger RNA (mRNA), so when the mRNA brings the genetic information for reproduction, the virus is reproduced instead of the original host cell’s molecule. As the cell reproduces more hantavirus, the hantavirus kills the host cell and infects others. As this spreads throughout the body, the internal structures fail and can lead to death….It is a virus that does not skip any demographic, is found naturally, and has a 50% mortality rate. These factors frighten some who worry about its use as a bioweapon.
Hantavirus has not been known to be weaponized or used for bioterrorism, but it is recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Category C Agent.2 Its presumed ease of production and dissemination, as well as its high potential for severe morbidity and mortality, raise concern for the possibility that this emerging pathogen could be engineered for future mass exposures.2
Although no cases of human-to-human transmission have been identified in the United States, investigation of an epidemic in Argentina in 1995 provided strong evidence for person-to-person transmission; strict barrier nursing techniques are now recommended for the management of suspected cases.
Prevention – stay away from mice and their droppings.  Since people often catch the virus by breathing it into their lungs, don’t use anything that allows particles from mouse droppings to get into the air (like sweeping with a broom).  Soak droppings down with a good disinfectant for 20 min and then wipe up with a mop.  In Spring, open doors and windows to sheds and allow them to air out well before entering.
Let’s pray ticks and other insects can not transmit Hantavirus and that it’s not been tweaked for biowarfare purposes.
Tularemia:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/10/25/of-rabbits-and-men/  Tularemia, in aerosol form, is considered a possible bioterrorist agent that if inhaled would cause severe respiratory illness. It was studied in Japan through 1945, the USA through the 60’s, and Russia is believed to have strains resistant to antibiotics and vaccines. An aerosol release in a high population would result in febrile illness in 3-5 days followed by pleuropneumonitis and systemic infection with illness persisting for weeks with relapses. The WHO estimates that an aerosol dispersal of 50 kg of F. tularensis over an area with 5 million people would result in 25,000 incapacitating casualties including 19,000 deaths.
https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/disease_emergence/Chapter6.pdf  Scroll to page 237 for Table 6.1 which shows Tularemia was used in Europe during WWII.  Debate remains whether massive outbreaks of Tularemia on the Eastern Front was a biowarfare application against German troops or occurred naturally.  Then on page 246 Table 6.3 shows confirmed applications of Tularemia during wartime, by terrorists, and/or as criminal activity.23,33,37,179, as well as it’s an agent produced for weapons use by nations with biowarfare programs.14,22,23,33,52.  It is a category A agent, which is of highest priority and a critical biological agent for public health response activities.
Hantavirus is not listed on page 250 Table 6.5 as a biowarfare agent, but mosquito transmitted Yellow Fever Virus is.

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Ticks, Transmission, Tularemia, Viruses

Vaccines Could Contribute to Disease Epidemics Due to Retrovirus Contamination

https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-03-01-vaccine-manufacturing-process-could-be-contributing-to-disease-epidemics-retrovirus-contamination.html#

The vaccine manufacturing process could be contributing to disease epidemics due to retrovirus contamination

Thursday, March 01, 2018 by: 

Image: The vaccine manufacturing process could be contributing to disease epidemics due to retrovirus contamination

(Natural News) Vaccines are highly controversial, and much of the debate rightly surrounds their connection to autism and their inclusion of mercury and other heavy metals. However, there is another aspect of vaccines that doesn’t get as much attention even though it could have grave repercussions for life on this planet: Retrovirus contamination.

A type of virus whose genes are encoded into RNA rather than DNA, retroviruses function differently than other types of viruses but can be just as devastating. Human retroviruses include HIV and human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1, which has been associated with some leukemias and lymphomas.

All animals have some retroviruses integrated into their genomes, with as much as 15 percent of the human genome believed to be made up of ERV human retroviruses. They contribute to diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neuroimmune diseases.

The manufacturing process involved in human and veterinary vaccines uses live animal and human cells to serve as master seed stock. The process was developed before the mechanisms of retroviruses were fully understood, which means that no one was aware of the risks at the time. While many retroviruses are harmless and remain essentially dormant, they become harmful when they are exposed to cells from other species, which is what can happen during the vaccine manufacturing process itself as well as during the administration of vaccines that contain cell components from other species. Incidentally, this is similar to what has been creating problems when researchers try to transplant pig tissues and organs into humans.

As new vaccines were developed in the 1970s, exposure to retroviruses intensified. These retroviruses have now been associated with many of the chronic illnesses modern humans are facing, from cancer and autism to Alzheimer’s and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is believed that as many as 20 million Americans could be infected with retroviruses, but not all of them will go on to develop a serious illness. They can be thought of as sleeping giants, who are only awakened when there is an immune deficiency.

A recent study published in the journal Biologicals outlined how endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are infecting cats and how the feline retrovirus known as RD-114 has contaminated vaccines for other pets. There are at least two ERVs in cat genomes, and the RD-114 virus is found in a wide range of vaccines for dogs and other animals. In fact, a different study showed that RD-114-related viruses contaminated around a third of the 25 commercial vaccines for dogs and cats tested.

Retrovirus contamination in vaccines widespread

Research scientist Judy A. Mikovits even goes so far as to say that nearly all human vaccines are contaminated with at least one retrovirus, usually from an animal thanks to the animal byproducts used in vaccine creation. Six percent of Americans now have mouse-related retroviruses, for example, and that almost certainly comes from vaccines.

Take the example of the rotavirus vaccines RotaTeq and Rotarix, which made headlines a few years ago when they were found to be contaminated with pig viruses. The problem becomes even worse when multiple vaccines are given in combination, as is often the case with children and infants. Dr. Mikovits points out that one pig retrovirus can cause symptoms similar to AIDS when there is a simultaneous immune system activation, such as concurrent vaccination, creating a “high-risk scenario for disease in humans.”

Vaccines are risky enough when you take retroviruses out of the equation, but this vastly underreported problem could eventually prove to be the biggest danger of vaccines yet.

Sources for this article include:

GreenMedInfo.com

ScienceDirect.com

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

HealthImpactNews.com

NaturalNews.com

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**Comment*

Lyme/MSIDS can activate the immune system and be that “sleeping giant,” the author points out.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/scottish-doctor-gives-insight-on-lyme-msids/  Dr. Lambert has treated a number of young women who fell ill after their HPV vaccination, which seems to have stimulated a latent Lyme infection to reactivate.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/24/gardasil-and-bartonella/  Asymptomatic girls after receiving Gardasil activated dormant Bartonella which was confirmed by testing.

More on retroviruses:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/15/vaccines-and-retroviruses-a-whistleblower-reveals-what-the-government-is-hiding/  What did microbiologist Judy Mikovitz get for exposing retroviruses in vaccines?  She got jailed without a search warrant and publicly demolished by those who can’t stand exposure to the truth.

 

 

Category:

Activism, Alzheimer's, Autism, Lyme, Lyme Vaccine, PANS, vaccines, Viruses

Asian Ticks Mysteriously Turn up in New Jersey

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/02/27/588408433/asian-ticks-mysteriously-turned-up-on-a-new-jersey-sheep

Asian Ticks (Mysteriously) Turned Up On A New Jersey Sheep

February 27, 2018
COURTNEY COLUMBUS

longhorned-ticks_wide-cb558bd04f51bf253cf572ad76b5f330b3a903b9-s700-c85

The tick Haemaphysalis longicornis.
Tadhgh Rainey

How did a tick that’s native to East Asia make it to rural New Jersey?

That’s the question puzzling researchers. The backstory involves a panicky sheep owner, tick-covered humans and a pair of pants stuck in the freezer.

The tick in question is Haemaphysalis longicornis — also known as the longhorned tick or bush tick.

It can reproduce by essentially cloning itself, allowing it to multiply quickly. It feeds on the blood of a variety of mammals, including people. In China, it has been linked to the spread of SFTS virus, described in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report as “an emerging hemorrhagic fever.”

The tick story starts last August. A resident of Hunterdon County, N.J., went to a county office because she had been shearing her sheep and noticed she was getting ticks on her arms, explains Tadhgh Rainey, the report’s lead author and the division head of the Hunterdon County division of health.

“What she didn’t know was her entire clothing, pants and everything, they were covered in ticks,” Rainey says. Those ticks were in the larval stage — smaller than 0.03 inches and tough to spot.

“Basically, they look like a speck of dirt,” Rainey says. “And if you look really closely, you’ll see those specks of dirt start to move a little bit.”

“I get this call from my assistant and he said, ‘We’ve got a resident here who showed up covered in ticks; she’s panicking; now we’re panicking and her pants are in our freezer,'” Rainey says. (Freezing, he explains, is one of the best ways to kill ticks.)

At first, Rainey assumed the parasites were deer ticks, a native species common in the area. But the sheer number of ticks on the resident’s clothing — more than 1,000 — surprised him. Usually, finding 20 to 50 larval deer ticks in that situation would be “quite a bit,” he says. What’s more, under the microscope, they didn’t look like deer ticks.

Rainey later went to the paddock where the sheep lived to collect ticks.

“Within two minutes, we’re covered in ticks,” he says. “Numbers I had never seen before — just sort of stunning.”

sheep-ear-ticks_custom-405d593c4e5eb377c13e2e5e0793c7b01f90f5f8-s700-c85

A close-up of the New Jersey sheep’s ear, infested with an East Asian tick.
Tadhgh Rainey

Investigators found hundreds on the sheep and collected nearly 1,000 more from the 1-acre paddock.

The tick has previously been found in the U.S. on large animals in quarantine, including a horse in New Jersey in the 1960s, says Andrea Egizi, the senior author of the paper, which was published last week in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Egizi is a research scientist with the Monmouth County Tick-Borne Disease Lab and a visiting professor in the entomology department at Rutgers University.

But this is the first time all life stages of this species (larvae, nymphs and adults) have been found on an unquarantined animal in the U.S.

Now here’s the thing: This sheep had definitely not visited Asia. As the paper notes, it had no “travel history.” So how did it pick up the ticks?

“There were no other domestic animals on that property, so it’s a really big mystery exactly how it got there,” says Egizi.

One or more ticks could have hitched a ride into the U.S. on a large animal such as a horse or a cow, or even on a dog or a person, Rainey says.

The sheep’s owner gave it a chemical wash to rid it of ticks. In a follow-up visit in November, the tick team didn’t find any ticks on it. County workers treated the property with chemicals and cut the high grass, Rainey says. By late November, they couldn’t find any ticks either on the sheep or in the paddock.

But that doesn’t mean they’re gone.

“It is possible that they were all killed, but we also don’t know if, before the property was treated, they were spread out of that property by wild animals,” Egizi says.

Then again, maybe the weather did them in.

“There are some populations [of this tick] that are less cold-tolerant, so there is a possibility that the winter killed them,” Egizi says.

The ticks face another challenge: The elderly sheep has died, so their only known host won’t be around anymore.

But they could also be the ultimate survivors.

“These invasive species are notorious for having survival strategies that outwit us at every corner,” Rainey says.

This spring, the researchers plan to go back to the site to look for any ticks that might have survived the winter and chemical treatments.

What’s less certain is whether people should be worried (aside from the obvious OMG factor of being covered in ticks).

Ticks generally don’t transmit diseases from person to person. Instead, they pick up a disease from an infected animal and can pass it to a person they feed on. Some native tick species in the U.S. can transmit Lyme disease and other diseases. But tick specialists aren’t too concerned about the longhorned tick. Even though it has been implicated in disease transmission in countries like China and Japan,

Egizi says, “It would be a question of whether they could transmit our local pathogens, which we don’t know.”

Meanwhile, tick specialists are in awe of the whole story. Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., called the discovery of the tick “serendipitous.”

“I wonder how often this kind of thing happens, but it goes undetected,” he says. “We don’t really have a systematic national capability to go around looking for invasive ticks from exotic places. They might be occurring, and we’ll never find out until it’s too late.”

Courtney Columbus is a multimedia journalist who covers science, global health and consumer health. She has contributed to the Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS. Contact her @cmcolumbus11

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**Comment**

Oh, this is rich on so many levels.

  1. We have ticks from Asia but haven’t a clue how they got here
  2. IT CLONES ITSELF & MULTIPLIES QUICKLY…..Hello!
  3. They’ve been found previously in the U.S.
  4. In China it spreads SFTS Virus, “an emerging hemorrhagic fever”
  5. A top ecologist wonders if this kind of thing happens but it goes undetected
  6. There isn’t a systematic national method to look for invasive ticks
  7. This might be occurring other places – but we won’t find out until it’s too late

 

But remember…….most importantly…….don’t panic

p.s.  Just received a comment from a NY Lyme advocate who reminded me that many ticks have an anti-freeze like substance within them that allows them to survive freezing temperatures.  For a great, short video on this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/20/polar-vorticks/

So, sticking pants in a freezer isn’t wise.  It would be better to stick them in the dryer on high heat 10-20 min:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/05/31/fry-and-die/

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Ticks, Viruses

Generating 1st Transgenic Ticks to Help Fight Tick-borne Diseases

https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2018/cabnr-lab-generates-transgenic-ticks

2/21/2018 | By: Robyn Feinberg

Generating first-ever transgenic ticks to help fight tick-borne diseases

College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources lab receives grant from National Institute of Health for tick research
Tick1180x560Unfed and blood fed larvae, an example of the ticks used in Gulia-Nuss’ lab that demonstrate the differences between an unfed and blood fed larvae. Photo taken by Andrew Nuss, assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

For those who are active hikers, or find themselves outdoors often, the reality of a tick bite is not unusual, nor are its potential consequences. Ticks are known for transmitting many diseases in animals and humans, especially the deer tick, which is a known carrier of diseases such as Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis.

Monika Gulia-Nuss, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno, is working on generating transgenic ticks in her lab, the first of their kind, in order to explore new targets for vector control. Vector control is any strategic method used to limit organisms that spread disease pathogens.Monika Gulia-Nuss in her lab

Gulia-Nuss’ lab works specifically on the deer tick and has received a $407,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to continue studies.

“Our focus is to be able to manipulate these ticks in the lab so that we can understand the functions of different genes,” Gulia-Nuss said. “This way we can have a better approach for finding new vaccine, drug or insecticide targets.”

“This particular project that we just got awarded from the National Institute of Health is to develop methods for generating transgenic ticks for functional studies,” Gulia-Nuss said.

Transgenic in this sense means deleting or over-expressing a gene in an organism – in this case the tick. Generating transgenic ticks will not only help the Gulia-Nuss lab explore new areas of vector control, but also help in understanding genes involved in tick-pathogen interactions.

“One of the major impediments in tick research is that we do not have any genetic tools to dissect out the functions of their genes,” Gulia-Nuss said.

The lab knows the functions of certain genes in other organisms, but those specific tools are not readily available when studying ticks, so Gulia-Nuss and her team are building tools.

Originally a mosquito biologist, Gulia-Nuss moved into tick research with little experience with the bloodsucking arachnids. Studying ticks has previously proven difficult for many labs and researchers in terms of time.

“I didn’t know that the tick life cycle is two years,” Gulia-Nuss said. “That was a surprise for me, because with mosquitoes, I was used to 10 days of life cycle, and here I had this organism that takes two years, which is another impediment in tick research.”

Gulia-Nuss’ first move in her transgenic research was to shorten the life cycle of the ticks she was working on.

“When I set up my lab here at the University in 2016, my first goal was to cut the life cycle short to a more manageable time,” she said. “We were able to bring it down to five months from two years, which was a big step forward for us.”

The lab was able to do this by placing the ticks in an incubator set to a higher temperature, increasing their metabolism and therefore causing them to molt faster.

The second step for Gulia-Nuss was to inject tick embryos, something that no one else had ever done before.

“We didn’t even know what manipulation we needed to inject embryos,” Gulia-Nuss said.

Gulia-Nuss’ collaborator and the co-investigator on this grant, Robert Harrell, is an expert in transgenic insects and manages the Insect Transformation Facility at the University of Maryland. Together, they used their expertise in mosquito embryo injections and translated it into the tick research.

“We were able to inject tick embryos, so the shortened life cycle and our ability to demonstrate that we could inject tick embryos were the two main steps that really helped us get this grant,” Gulia-Nuss said.

The hypothesis behind the work

The major hypothesis behind the lab’s research lies in disrupting insulin signaling in ticks so as to affect parasite development.

“If we disrupt insulin signaling in ticks, that will influence their physiology and their behavior, and potentially the development of the pathogen they carry,” Gulia-Nuss said.

Insulin signaling is extremely important for nutrient metabolism, which is in turn, important for all organisms including ticks.

“Nutrients are important for a parasite developing inside an organism because the parasite requires all of their nutrients from the host,” Gulia-Nuss said. “To get those nutrients, the insulin signaling of the host should be in perfect order, but if we disturb the insulin signaling in the host, that might affect parasite development.“

The lab is planning to use a technology called CRISPR-Cas9, which has the ability to manipulate genes in different organisms without them needing to be a model organism. With this technology, the lab will be able to knock-out genes in the ticks and understand their functions better, such as insulin signaling or other targets.

“It’s easier than the previous generation’s tools,” Gulia-Nuss said. “It’s not easy, but definitely easier.”

Lyme disease and public health

“Lyme disease is one of the most important vector-borne disease in the United States,” Gulia-Nuss said. “CDC reports around 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually, mostly in the 14 states in the Northeast and Midwest.”

Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease as the bacteria that causes it is carried by the tick. Ticks are blood-feeding organisms and they must feed on vertebrate blood at every developmental stage.

“Ticks go from eggs to larvae, to nymphs to adults, and at every developmental stage, they have to take a blood meal; it’s the only thing that they eat, they do not feed on anything else,” Gulia-Nuss said.

When ticks take this blood meal, they are likely to become infected with pathogens including the Lyme disease bacteria from an infected vertebrate, and transmit it during their next feed.

While Lyme disease is treatable through an antibiotics course, it can be fatal and lead to neuro-degenerative disorders if left untreated. Though Lyme disease is a serious problem, it is not the sole focus of the lab.

“Lyme disease is not the only disease that these ticks carry,” Gulia-Nuss said. “They also carry a number of different viruses, and understanding the tick-pathogen interaction on a molecular level will allow the research community to find new targets for tick control or blocking pathogen transmission.”

Gulia-Nuss’ lab already has support from the research community and this proposal was supported by researchers working on ticks as well as tick-pathogen interactions through letters of support. Once Gulia-Nuss’ lab have these tools made, they are hoping that it will not only help the tick research community, but also public health in general.

“This grant really puts us on the path forward, we are able to hire more staff for the lab, including a graduate student and a post-doctorate, and it will provide money for the next two years for things such as supplies, related costs to the ongoing project and also travel,” Gulia-Nuss said.

Gulia-Nuss received her bachelor’s, masters and doctorate degrees in biosciences from Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, India. She was a research scientist at Purdue University before moving to the University of Nevada, Reno as an assistant professor in 2016.

 

 

Category:

Lyme, Parasites, research, Ticks, Viruses