Discovery of Alpha-Gal-Containing Antigens in North American Tick Species Believed to Induce Red Meat Allergy

• Published in: Frontiers in immunology Vol. 10; p. 1056
• Main Authors: Crispell, Gary, Commins, Scott P., Archer-Hartman, Stephanie A., Choudhary, Shailesh, Dharmarajan, Guha, Azadi, Parastoo, Karim, Shahid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 17.05.2019
• Subjects: glycans; Immunology; red meat allergy; saliva; salivary glands; ticks; α-gal; saliva; glycans; ticks; red meat allergy; Amblyomma americanum; salivary glands; α-gal; Ixodes scapularis

Development of specific IgE antibodies to the oligosaccharide galactose-α-1, 3-galactose (α-gal) following tick bites has been shown to be the source of red meat allergy. In this study, we investigated the presence of α-gal in four tick species: the lone-star tick ( ), the Gulf-Coast tick ( ), the A...