2023-07-29 07:00:52
Lyme disease, also called Lyme borreliosis, is an infection that can be dangerous if not treated in time. In particular, it can lead to facial paralysis, inflammation of the brain and spinal cord or even heart palpitations, to name just a few examples. It is a vector-borne disease caused by a bacterium called Borrelia, which is transmitted to humans through a tick bite. Unfortunately, in France alone, bite cases generally number in the tens of thousands per year. The danger is therefore omnipresent, especially since there is currently no vaccine to prevent the disease.
Research directed by Inrae
However, thanks to the efforts made by the scientific community, the situation should improve in the years to come. In France, for example, researchers are developing a vaccine which might reduce the risk of tick bites. The team is made up of scientists from the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae), ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Labor) and the National Veterinary School of Alfort. To present the results of their researchthey recently published a study in the journal Microbiome.
An innovative vaccine to make ticks harmless. Illustrative photo not contractual. Credit: Shutterstock
A harmless bacterium as a Trojan horse
This research aims to create a vaccine effective enough to reduce the risk of infection by the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. But instead of directly targeting humans, the researchers focused their studies on the ticks themselves. They disrupted the microbiota of the latter by using another harmless bacterium as a Trojan horse. The vaccine was then administered to mice. “Once in the body, this harmless bacterium causes the mouse to produce antibodies. If the animal is then bitten by a tick, the antibodies interact with the tick’s microbiota and modify it.”explains Inrae.
Make ticks harmless
The role of the vaccine is thus to modify the microbiota of the tick so that it becomes harmless following having bitten a treated subject. Unfortunately, the treatment does not protect the latter from Lyme disease. Thanks to the analyzes that the researchers carried out, they discovered that the insect, which bit the animal that received the substance, carried much less Borrelia than the other specimens that bit unvaccinated mice. The researchers do not intend to stop there. They say they want to continue their work in the hope of developing an innovative vaccination strategy to prevent this potentially dangerous disease. More informations : inrae.fr
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