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Almost everyone who spends time outdoors knows the connection between ticks and Lyme disease. But tick bites may be much more threatening than previously thought, including a number of newly discovered pathogens and hundreds of bacteria that could play an important role in the health and outcomes of the victims. .
"Climate change is expanding tick beaches and we are spending more time in their habitats," said Cate Hill, a professor of entomology and vector biology at Purdue. "As we come in contact with ticks, we increase the risk of being bitten and contracting a tick-borne disease. We find that it is not just a microbe that these ticks could transmit to us. It's like a little microbial party, and we need to understand how their interactions can affect human health. "
To develop this understanding, Hill and scientists at his lab created the Tick INsiders program, which involves collecting Indiana ticks throughout the year to map not only bacteria and viruses to at a given moment, but also to follow their evolution. in all the state. Thirteen high school students have been trained to participate in the project and have been collecting ticks since the spring of 2018.
They found three types of ticks: the black-legged deer tick, the insulated-star tick, and the American dog tick. These arachnids are capable of transmitting nine different pathogens responsible for human diseases, although not all of them have been diagnosed in this state. The Indiana State Department of Health reports annually more than 100 cases of Lyme disease and dozens of cases of Ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain Fever.
Scientists suspect that the severity of diseases and the human immune response may vary depending on the cocktail of microbes (bacteria, viruses, and pathogens) passed from one victim to the other. It has been estimated that about 25% of ticks are co-infected with bacteria and parasites that cause Lyme disease and Babesia, for example. And maybe other pathogens are part of those ticks.
"It's not a tick bite, an illness," said Hill. "It's a tick bite with a unique complement of different microbes and pathogens, and we need to understand that diversity. We do not know which of these pathogens and how many are transferred when ticks bite, how our body reacts and how the interaction between our immune system and multiple microbes could affect the course of the disease. "
Until now, the Tick INsider program collections have identified hundreds of bacteria. These may include pathogens known to cause human diseases, including several bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Scientists study up to 100 different bacteria that can be pathogens.
"We already know there is a risk of contracting Lyme disease in the state, in one of Indiana's 92 counties," said Hill. "We are looking for anything that has not been found yet, but that could come up at some point."
Knowing what is happening and what's in us can be helpful to doctors who need to know how to best treat tick-borne diseases that sometimes affect patients in unique ways.
"This in-depth survey will help us design comprehensive diagnostics to detect hundreds of potential pathogens and allow physicians to prescribe patient-specific treatment regimens – that is, a personalized medicine for tick-borne diseases, "said Hill.
Eight scientific students involved in the Tick INsider program spent Friday October 19 on campus to become familiar with the analysis performed on the ticks found.
They visited laboratories that analyze the DNA of each tick and identified the types of viruses and bacteria present, as well as the nucleus of Purinue Bioinformatics, where the data is analyzed.
The Tick INsider program will accept applications for new students in early January. And Hill said she was hoping to expand the program soon so that any resident of Indiana could be trained to collect and send ticks.
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