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Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks

Over 600,000 vector-borne disease cases were reported in the United States (U.S.) in the past 13 years, of which more than three-quarters were tick-borne diseases. Although Lyme disease accounts for the majority of tick-borne disease cases in the U.S., tularemia cases have been increasing over the p...

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Autores principales: Tully, Brenden G., Huntley, Jason F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690693/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33114018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111639
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author Tully, Brenden G.
Huntley, Jason F.
author_facet Tully, Brenden G.
Huntley, Jason F.
author_sort Tully, Brenden G.
collection PubMed
description Over 600,000 vector-borne disease cases were reported in the United States (U.S.) in the past 13 years, of which more than three-quarters were tick-borne diseases. Although Lyme disease accounts for the majority of tick-borne disease cases in the U.S., tularemia cases have been increasing over the past decade, with >220 cases reported yearly. However, when comparing Borrelia burgdorferi (causative agent of Lyme disease) and Francisella tularensis (causative agent of tularemia), the low infectious dose (<10 bacteria), high morbidity and mortality rates, and potential transmission of tularemia by multiple tick vectors have raised national concerns about future tularemia outbreaks. Despite these concerns, little is known about how F. tularensis is acquired by, persists in, or is transmitted by ticks. Moreover, the role of one or more tick vectors in transmitting F. tularensis to humans remains a major question. Finally, virtually no studies have examined how F. tularensis adapts to life in the tick (vs. the mammalian host), how tick endosymbionts affect F. tularensis infections, or whether other factors (e.g., tick immunity) impact the ability of F. tularensis to infect ticks. This review will assess our current understanding of each of these issues and will offer a framework for future studies, which could help us better understand tularemia and other tick-borne diseases.
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spelling pubmed-76906932020-11-27 Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks Tully, Brenden G. Huntley, Jason F. Microorganisms Review Over 600,000 vector-borne disease cases were reported in the United States (U.S.) in the past 13 years, of which more than three-quarters were tick-borne diseases. Although Lyme disease accounts for the majority of tick-borne disease cases in the U.S., tularemia cases have been increasing over the past decade, with >220 cases reported yearly. However, when comparing Borrelia burgdorferi (causative agent of Lyme disease) and Francisella tularensis (causative agent of tularemia), the low infectious dose (<10 bacteria), high morbidity and mortality rates, and potential transmission of tularemia by multiple tick vectors have raised national concerns about future tularemia outbreaks. Despite these concerns, little is known about how F. tularensis is acquired by, persists in, or is transmitted by ticks. Moreover, the role of one or more tick vectors in transmitting F. tularensis to humans remains a major question. Finally, virtually no studies have examined how F. tularensis adapts to life in the tick (vs. the mammalian host), how tick endosymbionts affect F. tularensis infections, or whether other factors (e.g., tick immunity) impact the ability of F. tularensis to infect ticks. This review will assess our current understanding of each of these issues and will offer a framework for future studies, which could help us better understand tularemia and other tick-borne diseases. MDPI 2020-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7690693/ /pubmed/33114018 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111639 Text en © 2020 by the authors. 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Tully, Brenden G.
Huntley, Jason F.
Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title_full Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title_fullStr Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title_full_unstemmed Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title_short Mechanisms Affecting the Acquisition, Persistence and Transmission of Francisella tularensis in Ticks
title_sort mechanisms affecting the acquisition, persistence and transmission of francisella tularensis in ticks
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690693/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33114018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111639
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