A single tick screening for infectious pathogens using targeted mass spectrometry

• Published in: Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry Vol. 414; no. 13; pp. 3791 - 3802
• Main Authors: Smith, Holly R., Canessa, Emily H., Roy, Runia, Spathis, Rita, Pour, Michel Shamoon, Hathout, Yetrib
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.05.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ABC Highlights: authored by Rising Stars and Top Experts; Analysis; Analytical Chemistry; Animals; Arachnids; Biochemistry; Borrelia; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Food Science; Ixodes - microbiology; Laboratory Medicine; Lyme disease; Mass Spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Paper in Forefront; Pathogenic microorganisms; Pathogens; Proteins; Proteomics; Rickettsia; Scientific imaging; Screening; Species; Spectroscopy; Ticks; Vector-borne diseases; United States; Lyme disease; Borrelia; Rickettsia; Mass spectrometry; Ticks; Proteomics
• ISSN: 1618-2642; 1618-2650
• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-022-04054-y

The black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis , is a well-known vector for the Lyme disease-causing pathogen ( Borrelia burgdorferi ) but can also carry other disease-causing pathogens such as Rickettsia , Anaplasma , Bartonella , Ehrlichia , and Theileria . Hence, tick screening using highly specific protein signatures for specific pathogens will help assess the prevalence of infected ticks and understand the pathogen-tick interactions in a specific geographic area. In this study, we used data-dependent acquisition to key pathogen protein signatures in black-legged ticks collected from the Southern Tier New York. Bottom-up proteomic analysis of extract from five combined ticks identified 2,052 tick proteins and 41 pathogen proteins with high confidence (≥ 99% C.I.). Results show high peptide spectral match counts for  Rickettsia species and Borrelia species and lower counts for other rarer pathogens such as Anaplasma phagocytophilum . Parallel reaction monitoring performed on protein extracts from individual ticks ( n  = 10) revealed that 8 out of the 10 screened ticks carried Rickettsia species, 5 carried Borrelia species, 3 carried both pathogens, and only 1 tick carried no detectable bacteria. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics is a highly specific way to define the expression of different types of pathogen proteins in infected ticks. This might bring insights into the tick-pathogen interactions at the molecular level and especially expression pathogen surface proteins in ticks.