Eco-epidemiological screening of multi-host wild rodent communities in the UK reveals pathogen strains of zoonotic interest

Occhibove, Flavia; McKeown, Niall J.; Risley, Claire; Ironside, Joseph E.

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.02.010

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…According to the authors, the majority of the strains (86%) were identified as the zoonotic ecotype I, probably maintained by red deer, and the remaining (14%) as the non-zoonotic ecotype II, probably maintained by roe deer [ 23 ]. An eco-epidemiological screening of the rodent community in West Wales revealed a low prevalence of A. phagocytophilum, which was detected only at one site in ticks collected from bank voles [ 24 ]. To our knowledge, there are no published studies elucidating the ecotypes of A. phagocytophilum present in UK ruminants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Ecotype I in UK Ruminants and Associated Zoonotic Risk

et al. 2023

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Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the causative agent of tick-borne fever in sheep, pasture fever in cattle, and granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans. The increasing prevalence and transboundary spread of A. phagocytophilum in livestock, ticks, and wildlife in the UK poses a potential zoonotic risk that has yet to be estimated. Several ecotypes of A. phagocytophilum show variable zoonotic potential. To evaluate the possible risk associated with the transmission of A. phagocytophilum from ruminants to humans, the ecotype was determined by sequencing the groEL gene from 71 positive blood and tissue samples from UK ruminants. Thirty-four groEL sequences were obtained, fourteen of which were identified in multiple samples. Of the 13 nucleotide polymorphisms identified through pairwise comparison, all corresponded to synonymous substitutions. The subsequent phylogenetic estimation of the relationship with other European/world isolates indicated that all the groEL sequences clustered with other ecotype I sequences. The presence of ecotype I closely reflects that observed in ruminants in continental Europe and suggests a lower risk of zoonotic transmission from this reservoir.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Ecotype I in UK Ruminants and Associated Zoonotic Risk

et al. 2023

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“…Apart from the clear immuno-evolutionary focus, our study provided the first detailed characterization of the splenic lymphocyte landscape (supported by immune phenotyping with monoclonal antibodies, rather than transcriptomic data) in the bank vole, an emerging model species in ecology and evolution ( 31 , 66 – 68 ). It is also a reservoir of pathogens with zoonotic potential, such as Puumala virus ( 69 ) or tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii ( 70 ), which makes it a species of interest for parasitological and epidemiological surveillance ( 71 , 72 ). We thus add bank voles to a short list of non-murine rodents (e.g., 73 , 74 ) for which such immunophenotyping has been performed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary trade-offs constraining the MHC gene expansion: beyond simple TCR depletion model

Migalska,

Węglarczyk,

Dudek

et al. 2024

Front. Immunol.

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The immune system is as much shaped by the pressure of pathogens as it is by evolutionary trade-offs that constrain its structure and function. A perfect example comes from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), molecules that initiate adaptive immune response by presentation of foreign antigens to T cells. The remarkable, population-level polymorphism of MHC genes is assumed to result mainly from a co-evolutionary arms race between hosts and pathogens, while the limited, within-individual number of functional MHC loci is thought to be the consequence of an evolutionary trade-off between enhanced pathogen recognition and excessive T cell depletion during negative selection in the thymus. Certain mathematical models and infection studies suggest that an intermediate individual MHC diversity would thus be optimal. A recent, more direct test of this hypothesis has shown that the effects of MHC diversity on T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoires may differ between MHC classes, supporting the depletion model only for MHC class I. Here, we used the bank vole (Myodes=Cletronomys glareolus), a rodent species with variable numbers of expressed MHC genes, to test how an individual MHC diversity influences the proportions and TCR repertoires of responding T cell subsets. We found a non-linear relationship between MHC diversity and T cell proportions (with intermediate MHC numbers coinciding with the largest T cell proportions), perhaps reflecting an optimality effect of balanced positive and negative thymic selection. The association was strongest for the relationship between MHC class I and splenic CD8+ T cells. The CD8+ TCR richness alone was unaffected by MHC class I diversity, suggesting that MHC class I expansion may be limited by decreasing T cell counts, rather than by direct depletion of TCR richness. In contrast, CD4+ TCR richness was positively correlated with MHC class II diversity, arguing against a universal TCR depletion. It also suggests that different evolutionary forces or trade-offs may limit the within-individual expansion of the MHC class II loci.

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“…The rodent family Cricetidae, a sister taxa of Muridae, is the second largest mammalian family (Steppan and Schenk, 2017;Wilson and Reeder, 2005) and taken together they form the most speciose group of mammals. By sheer numbers, wide geographic distributions and a prevalence of certain life history traits (Han et al, 2016(Han et al, , 2015 they include many reservoir species of zoonotic diseases, and so both groups are a subject of intense ecological, parasitological and epidemiological studies (e.g., Jonsson, Figueiredo and Vapalahti, 2010;Grzybek et al, 2015;Occhibove et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-reactivity of antibodies against T cell markers in the Bank vole (Myodes glareolus)

Migalska

Węglarczyk

Mężyk-Kopeć

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The bank vole is a common Cricetidae rodent that is a reservoir of several zoonotic pathogens and an emerging model in eco-immunology. Here, we add to a developing immunological toolkit for this species by testing the cross-reactivity of commercially available monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to the bank vole lymphocyte differentiation molecules and a transcription factor. We show that a combination of mAbs against CD4, CD3, and Foxp3 allows flow cytometric distinction of the main subsets of T cells: putative helper CD4+, cytotoxic CD8+ (as CD3+CD4-) and regulatory CD4+Foxp3+. We also provide a comparative analysis of amino acid sequences of CD4, CD8αβ, CD3εγδ and Fopx3 molecules for a number of commonly studied Cricetidae rodents and discuss mAb cross-reactivity patterns reported so far in this rodent family.

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Eco-epidemiological screening of multi-host wild rodent communities in the UK reveals pathogen strains of zoonotic interest

Cited by 7 publications

References 122 publications

Presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Ecotype I in UK Ruminants and Associated Zoonotic Risk

Presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Ecotype I in UK Ruminants and Associated Zoonotic Risk

Evolutionary trade-offs constraining the MHC gene expansion: beyond simple TCR depletion model

Cross-reactivity of antibodies against T cell markers in the Bank vole (Myodes glareolus)

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