Ixodes scapularis salivary gland microRNAs are differentially expressed during Powassan virus transmission.

ABSTRACT: Successful tick feeding is facilitated by an assortment of pharmacologically-active factors in tick saliva that create an immunologically privileged micro-environment in the host's skin. Through a process known as saliva-assisted transmission, bioactive tick salivary factors modulate the host environment, promoting transmission and establishment of a tick-borne pathogen. This phenomenon was previously demonstrated for Powassan virus (POWV), a North American tick-borne flavivirus that is the causative agent of a severe neuroinvasive disease in humans. Here, we sought to characterize the Ixodes scapularis salivary gland microRNAs (miRNAs) expressed during the earliest period of POWV transmission to a mammalian host. POWV-infected and uninfected I. scapularis females were fed on naïve mice fo

SUBMITTER: Hermance ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6739385 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature