The tick could become the best friend of man

Who would have thought: the tick, this ugly little parasite, a source of several diseases in humans and animals could become a benefactor of mankind.

According to the work of Belgian researchers at the Free University of Brussels, saliva of ticks is surprisingly rich in anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory molecules. The substances are potentially helpful to prevent deep vein thrombosis, stroke or pulmonary embolism.

Ticks are mites "giants" reaching one to three centimeters long. They feed on the blood of humans or vertebrate animals (including lizards and snakes). And it is very common to not even feel a tick attached to the skin.

Only palpation reveals its presence. Evoluting they have developed strategies worthy of the best medical concepts, mixing anesthetics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants.

That is how the tick can quietly settle on the skin. It has small claws that enable it to move to find a good place to stop. Then it deploys its snout, like a small syringe with which it will slowly inject saliva with some anesthetics into the skin.

Within an hour, its snout is fully and firmly embedded in the epidermis. The secret is also a kind of biological glue to better anchor on its prey.

Once properly installed, its saliva releases substances allowing it to escape the immune system of the host (anti-inflammatory), anticoagulant substances that make the blood remain liquid and the tick can feed on it, and substances to numb nervous system. The tick therefore becomes invisible to the host's defense system.

The team of Dr. Edmond Godfroid was able to isolate a protein, called Ir-CPI (which includes the name of the tick and the action of the molecule) with antithrombotic properties.

This compound prevents the formation of blood clots, without acting on very complex systems of coagulation. "We started work on Lyme disease, one of the most important diseases transmitted by ticks," says Edmond Godfroid. "Then we veered off on the content analysis of the saliva of the tick and its properties on the modulation of the immune response. That's how we discovered this protein. We have isolated the gene and this substance is now produced on a large scale, cloned in bacteria."

A small company Bioxodes is being formed to conduct clinical trials. "The first tests are in progress. But the entire process will be long," warns Edmond Godfroid.

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