蜱的功能分子研究及其应用前景

Research Progress on Functional Molecules from Ticks and their Application Prospect

蜱既是常见的吸血外寄生虫 ,又是人和动物许多重要疾病的媒介。为了持续地吸血 ,蜱唾液腺可分泌大量生物活性分子 ,并在抗凝血、抗炎症、免疫抑制等方面发挥重要作用。现已分离鉴定出的蜱抗凝血多肽 (TAP)等新型抗凝血和其他多种具有免疫调节的功能分子。此外 ,抗蜱基因工程疫苗候选抗原分子、酶及酶的抑制剂分子、抗药性相关分子、抗菌多肽和毒素等也在被深入研究。这些功能分子不仅在蜱及蜱传染病防制中显示着重要作用 ,同时也在医药生物制剂开发研制上表现出潜在的重要价值 。

Ticks are not only as common blood feeding ectoparasite,but also as vectors of many important diseases of human and animals. To keep continuous blood feeding, tick salivary glands secret a lot of bioactive molecules,which show key roles in anticoagulation, anti inflammation, immunosuppression,and so on. Anticoagulation molecules such as TAP and other many immunomodulation proteins have been isolated and characterized. Meantime, it has been intensively studied on anti tick vaccine candidate antigens, enzyme and enzyme inhibitors,molecules related with drug resistance, antimicrobial peptide and toxin molecules. These functional molecules from ticks show important roles in the control of tick and tick borne diseases, some of them also find their potential application in medicine. Present research results suggest broad application prospects of tick functional molecules.