Novel targets and strategies to combat borreliosis

Abstract

Lyme borreliosis is a bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks and may severely affect many organs and tissues. Nearly four decades have elapsed since the discovery of the disease agent called Borrelia burgdorferi. Although there is a plethora of knowledge on the infectious agent and thousands of scientific publications, an effective way on how to combat and prevent Lyme borreliosis has not been found yet. There is no vaccine for humans available, and only one active vaccine program in clinical development is currently running. A spirited search for possible disease interventions is of high public interest as surveillance data indicates that the number of cases of Lyme borreliosis is steadily increasing in Europe and North America. This review provides a condensed digest of the history of vaccine development up to new promising vaccine candidates and strategies that are targeted against Lyme borreliosis, including elements of the tick vector, the reservoir hosts, and the Borrelia pathogen itself.

Mechanistic movement models reveal ecological drivers of tick-borne pathogen spread

“…Our simulation study follows this line of research. Various methods have been explored to limit the density of infected ticks in the environment: reducing the density of amplification and reproduction hosts by hunting or predation [ 32 , 46 ], reduction of ticks on hosts or in the environment using acaricide treatments [ 47 ], modification of host species composition [ 48 ], vaccination of amplification hosts or humans [ 49 ], prevention of human exposure to tick bites through educational programmes [ 50 ] and landscape modification through habitat fragmentation [ 9 ], leaf litter removal [ 51 ] and controlled burning [ 52 ]. Our results suggest that control strategies that are effective at reducing tick burden on reproduction hosts should result in a reduced density of infected ticks in the environment.…”

Resistance to Ticks and the Path to Anti-Tick and Transmission Blocking Vaccines

“…Though anti-tick and transmission blocking vaccines for use in humans are well recognized research objectives [ 21 , 23 , 109 , 110 ], there are very few studies of human responses to tick bites or to tick saliva molecules, despite the putative therapeutic potential of some of these molecules [ 111 ]. Translational studies are needed that focus on responses to tick feeding, specific saliva molecules, and the tick component in human host–tick–pathogen interactions.…”

Do tick-borne diseases affect outdoor teaching in Slovenian preschools?

“…However, such therapy is most effective early in the course of the illness. Vaccine is currently in development (Eisen, 2021;O'Bier et al, 2021;Strnad et al, 2020;Mihajlović et al, 2019).…”