TickTools: Development of tools to monitor and control tick-borne diseases of humans and livestock

壁虱传播的疾病对英国境内的人类和家畜种群都造成了严重的健康负担。这包括最近发现的扁虱传播的脑炎病毒，这是整个欧洲人类脑炎的常见原因，以及由鲁平病毒引起的家畜疾病。这两种病毒都是黄病毒的类型，而且关系密切，现在都是英国的地方病。关于这些病毒的生物学仍然存在许多问题，在了解扁虱媒介种群中的病毒分布方面存在关键差距，对黄病毒致病机制的基本问题以及明显缺乏血清学测试来区分两种病毒中的哪种抗体，以便区分哪些病毒在不同的宿主物种中传播。为了解决这些差距，TickTools项目旨在进行一系列研究，每项研究由一个项目合作伙伴协调。英国动植物卫生局(APHA)将对英国各地的成虫进行实地调查，并确定每个样本中存在的微生物组成，这将识别存在的所有病毒和细菌。这种方法还将捕获每一只扁虱的基因组，这些基因组可用于评估该国内扁虱种群之间的关系，这反过来可能揭示这些种群之间的相互作用以及扁虱及其病原体的传播方式。APHA将支持格拉斯哥大学病毒研究中心(CVR)建立病毒感染模型，以确定壁虱传播的黄病毒的发病机制。这将通过将强毒病毒与减毒病毒进行比较来实现。这一方法将确定预防和控制黄病毒感染的潜在治疗目标，目的是预防病毒感染的最严重表现。从这些研究中，CVR将向诺丁汉大学(UON)提供器官组织(脾)，以支持他们开发单链抗体，这种抗体可用于进一步研究这两种病毒，但也有可能用于治疗感染的人或宠物。UON还将开发抗原(肽)面板，以区分TBEV或LiV感染的血清学反应。使用UON开发的分析方法，将有可能对人类和动物群体进行血清学监测。

Tick-borne diseases cause a significant health burden on both the human and domestic livestock populations within the United Kingdom (UK). This includes the recently detected tick-borne encephalitis virus, a common cause of encephalitis in humans across Europe, and the livestock disease caused by louping ill virus. Both are types of flaviviruses and are closely related, and both are now endemic within the UK. Many questions remain concerning the biology of these viruses and there are key gaps in understanding virus distribution within tick vector populations, fundamental questions on flavivirus virus pathogenesis and a clear lack of serological tests that can distinguish between antibodies to either virus in order to tell which is circulating in the different host species. To address these gaps, the TickTools project aims to conduct a series of studies, each coordinated by one of the project partners. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) will conduct field surveys for adult ticks from across the UK and determine the microbiological make-up present within each sample, which will identify all viruses and bacteria present. This approach will also capture the genome of each tick that can be used to assess the relationships between tick-populations within the country, which in turn could reveal the interactions between these populations and how ticks, and their pathogens disperse. APHA will support the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) in establishing a virus infection model to determine the pathogenesis of tick-borne flaviviruses. This will be achieved by comparing the virulent virus with an attenuated virus. This approach will identify potential therapeutic targets for prevention and control of flavivirus infection with the aim of preventing the most severe manifestations of virus infection. From these studies, CVR will supply organ tissue (spleen) to the University of Nottingham (UoN) to support their development of scFv antibodies that can be used to further study both viruses but also have potential as treatments for people or pets that become infected. The UoN will also develop antigen (peptide) panels that will discriminate between serological responses to infection with either TBEV or LIV. Using assays developed by UoN, serological surveillance in both human and animal populations will be possible.