RML scientists develop new way to study tick-borne viruses

National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists have filled a research gap by developing a way to study ticks that transmit viruses like Lyme Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Scientist Jeff Grabowski at the Rocky Mountain Lab in Hamilton dissected deer ticks under a microscope using a fine pair of tweezers. He then removed three key organs – the midgut (or the tick’s digestive track), the salivary glands, and the synganglion nervous tissue (like the tick’s brain). “Jeff was able to culture those teeny tiny organs in culture media,” said Marshall Bloom, chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Biology of Vector-Borne Viruses Section. “He infected them with Powassan virus or Langat virus. Sure enough the virus was able to infect the midgut and salivary gland cultures.” Both Powassan and Langat viruses are a tick-borne diseases that can cause swelling in the brain, or encephalitis. Now the scientists can look at...