NIH scientists explore tick salivary glands as tool to study virus transmission and infection

This confocal microscope image shows a cross section of a tick salivary gland infected with Langat virus (green). Two rounded structures on the right, called acini, are shown attached to a duct (yellow). The lower acinus is infected, as denoted by the green fluorescent signal. Credit: NIAID The salivary glands of some tick species could become important research tools for studying how viruses are transmitted from ticks to mammals, and for developing preventive medical countermeasures. Tick salivary glands usually block transmission, but a new study conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health focuses on the role of salivary glands in spreading flaviviruses from black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) to mammals. The new study, published in the journal mBio, advances the researchers’ work published in 2017 that established cultured tick organs as a model for flavivirus infection. Flaviviruses include dengue virus, Zika virus, West...