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Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses
Co-infections are a poorly understood aspect of tick-borne diseases. In the United States alone, nineteen different tick-borne pathogens have been identified. The majority of these agents are transmitted by only two tick species, Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum. Surveillance studies have...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38003835 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12111371 |
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author | Sanchez-Vicente, Santiago Tokarz, Rafal |
author_facet | Sanchez-Vicente, Santiago Tokarz, Rafal |
author_sort | Sanchez-Vicente, Santiago |
collection | PubMed |
description | Co-infections are a poorly understood aspect of tick-borne diseases. In the United States alone, nineteen different tick-borne pathogens have been identified. The majority of these agents are transmitted by only two tick species, Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum. Surveillance studies have demonstrated the presence of multiple pathogens in individual ticks suggesting a risk of polymicrobial transmission to humans. However, relatively few studies have explored this relationship and its impact on human disease. One of the key factors for this deficiency are the intrinsic limitations associated with molecular and serologic assays employed for the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases. Limitations in the sensitivity, specificity and most importantly, the capacity for inclusion of multiple agents within a single assay represent the primary challenges for the accurate detection of polymicrobial tick-borne infections. This review will focus on outlining these limitations and discuss potential solutions for the enhanced diagnosis of tick-borne co-infections. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10674443 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-106744432023-11-20 Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses Sanchez-Vicente, Santiago Tokarz, Rafal Pathogens Review Co-infections are a poorly understood aspect of tick-borne diseases. In the United States alone, nineteen different tick-borne pathogens have been identified. The majority of these agents are transmitted by only two tick species, Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum. Surveillance studies have demonstrated the presence of multiple pathogens in individual ticks suggesting a risk of polymicrobial transmission to humans. However, relatively few studies have explored this relationship and its impact on human disease. One of the key factors for this deficiency are the intrinsic limitations associated with molecular and serologic assays employed for the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases. Limitations in the sensitivity, specificity and most importantly, the capacity for inclusion of multiple agents within a single assay represent the primary challenges for the accurate detection of polymicrobial tick-borne infections. This review will focus on outlining these limitations and discuss potential solutions for the enhanced diagnosis of tick-borne co-infections. MDPI 2023-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10674443/ /pubmed/38003835 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12111371 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Sanchez-Vicente, Santiago Tokarz, Rafal Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title | Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title_full | Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title_fullStr | Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title_full_unstemmed | Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title_short | Tick-Borne Co-Infections: Challenges in Molecular and Serologic Diagnoses |
title_sort | tick-borne co-infections: challenges in molecular and serologic diagnoses |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38003835 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12111371 |
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