Parents'Willingness and Perception of Children's Autonomy as Predictors of Greater Independent Mobility to School

The present study aimed to examine the factors associated with different forms of independent mobility (IM) to school (IM one way and IM both ways) according to their parents' opinions. To do so, several variables were evaluated: how parents assess their children's autonomy, the difficulty they perceive for IM to school, reasons for IM/no IM to school, parents' willingness for IM to school, frequency of children's IM for leisure activities, children having house keys and dangers perceived in the neighborhood. Family-related socio-demographic variables were also assessed: number of children, position occupied by them in the family, family composition, living with both parents or just one, and each parent's nationality, level of education and job status. This study examined the data collected from 1450 parents (mothers and fathers) with children studying Primary Education years 4, 5 and 6 (M age = 10.53, SD = 0.90). The results showed that 42.3% of the schoolchildren did not practice IM to school, 18.1% practiced IM one way (they went to or from school alone), and 39.5% practiced IM both way (they went to/from school alone). These findings underline the importance of parents' willingness for IM to school, and how the balance between how they perceive their children's autonomy and difficulty for IM is relevant for greater IM to school. Keywords: Independent mobility, parents, willingness, perception of autonomy, difficulty

Impact of Climate Trends on Tick-Borne Pathogen Transmission

Recent advances in climate research together with a better understanding of tick–pathogen interactions, the distribution of ticks and the diagnosis of tick-borne pathogens raise questions about the impact of environmental factors on tick abundance and spread and the prevalence and transmission of tick-borne pathogens. While undoubtedly climate plays a role in the changes in distribution and seasonal abundance of ticks, it is always difficult to disentangle factors impacting on the abundance of tick hosts from those exerted by human habits. All together, climate, host abundance, and social factors may explain the upsurge of epidemics transmitted by ticks to humans. Herein we focused on tick-borne pathogens that affect humans with epidemic potential. Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. (Lyme disease), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (human granulocytic anaplasmosis), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (tick-borne encephalitis) are transmitted by Ixodes spp. Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever) is transmitted by Hyalomma spp. In this review, we discussed how vector tick species occupy the habitat as a function of different climatic factors, and how these factors impact on tick survival and seasonality. How molecular events at the tick–pathogen interface impact on pathogen transmission is also discussed. Results from statistically and biologically derived models are compared to show that while statistical models are able to outline basic information about tick distributions, biologically derived models are necessary to evaluate pathogen transmission rates and understand the effect of climatic variables and host abundance patterns on pathogen transmission. The results of these studies could be used to build early alert systems able to identify the main factors driving the subtle changes in tick distribution and seasonality and the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens

Proteomics applications to tick research

Comunicaciones a congreso

Children’s Social Integration and Low Perception of Negative Relationships as Protectors Against Bullying and Cyberbullying

The aim was to investigate the factors associated with the diverse bullying forms suffered by a victim (relational, aggressive and cyberbullying) by considering the mediating role of the quality of coexistence in school: social integration and perception about relationships among peers. We evaluated data about 42 schools (79.5% public) in a sample of 3,407 students (47.6% boys and 52.4% girls) from the Primary Education. The mediational analyses indicated that, to predict all the bullying forms, a greater sense of social integration and a perception of low negative relationships were mediators, and social integration was the factor that most strongly correlated with bullying, especially relational bullying. We found that the number of good friends and negative relationships together predicted social integration, and the school type predicted negative relationships and number of good friends. The implications for education programs and policy are discussed

A systems biology approach to the characterization of stress response in Dermacentor reticulatus tick unfed larvae

[Background]: Dermacentor reticulatus (Fabricius, 1794) is distributed in Europe and Asia where it infests and transmits disease-causing pathogens to humans, pets and other domestic and wild animals. However, despite its role as a vector of emerging or re-emerging diseases, very little information is available on the genome, transcriptome and proteome of D. reticulatus. Tick larvae are the first developmental stage to infest hosts, acquire infection and transmit pathogens that are transovarially transmitted and are exposed to extremely stressing conditions. In this study, we used a systems biology approach to get an insight into the mechanisms active in D. reticulatus unfed larvae, with special emphasis on stress response. [Principal Findings]: The results support the use of paired end RNA sequencing and proteomics informed by transcriptomics (PIT) for the analysis of transcriptomics and proteomics data, particularly for organisms such as D. reticulatus with little sequence information available. The results showed that metabolic and cellular processes involved in protein synthesis were the most active in D. reticulatus unfed larvae, suggesting that ticks are very active during this life stage. The stress response was activated in D. reticulatus unfed larvae and a Rickettsia sp. similar to R. raoultii was identified in these ticks. [Significance]: The activation of stress responses in D. reticulatus unfed larvae likely counteracts the negative effect of temperature and other stress conditions such as Rickettsia infection and favors tick adaptation to environmental conditions to increase tick survival. These results show mechanisms that have evolved in D. reticulatus ticks to survive under stress conditions and suggest that these mechanisms are conserved across hard tick species. Targeting some of these proteins by vaccination may increase tick susceptibility to natural stress conditions, which in turn reduce tick survival and reproduction, thus reducing tick populations and vector capacity for tick-borne pathogens.This research was supported by grants BFU2011-23896 and the EU FP7 ANTIGONE project number 278976. M. Popara is an Early Stage Researcher supported by the POSTICK ITN (Post-graduate training network for capacity building to control ticks and tick-borne diseases) within the FP7- PEOPLE – ITN programme (EU Grant No. 238511). N. Ayllón and R.C. Galindo were funded by MEC, Spain.Peer Reviewe

Nuclease Tudor-SN is involved in tick dsRNA-mediated RNA interference and feeding but not in defense against flaviviral or anaplasma phagocytophilum rickettsial infection

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.Tudor staphylococcal nuclease (Tudor-SN) and Argonaute (Ago) are conserved components of the basic RNA interference (RNAi) machinery with a variety of functions including immune response and gene regulation. The RNAi machinery has been characterized in tick vectors of human and animal diseases but information is not available on the role of Tudor- SN in tick RNAi and other cellular processes. Our hypothesis is that tick Tudor-SN is part of the RNAi machinery and may be involved in innate immune response and other cellular processes. To address this hypothesis, Ixodes scapularis and I. ricinus ticks and/or cell lines were used to annotate and characterize the role of Tudor-SN in dsRNA-mediated RNAi, immune response to infection with the rickettsia Anaplasma phagocytophilum and the flaviviruses TBEV or LGTV and tick feeding. The results showed that Tudor-SN is conserved in ticks and involved in dsRNA-mediated RNAi and tick feeding but not in defense against infection with the examined viral and rickettsial pathogens. The effect of Tudor-SN gene knockdown on tick feeding could be due to down-regulation of genes that are required for protein processing and blood digestion through a mechanism that may involve selective degradation of dsRNAs enriched in G:U pairs that form as a result of adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing. These results demonstrated that Tudor-SN plays a role in tick RNAi pathway and feeding but no strong evidence for a role in innate immune responses to pathogen infection was found.This research was supported by grants BFU2011-23896 and the European Union FP7 ANTIGONE project number 278976 (JdlF). NA was funded by Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain. VN was funded by the European Social Fund and the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (Program FSE 2007–2013), Spain. RS was supported by the project Postdok_BIOGLOBE (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0032) and by the Grant 13-12816P (GA CR). OH was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic grant no. 13-27630P and European Union FP7 MODBIOLIN project number 316304. CR and LBS were supported by the United Kingdom Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's National Capability Grant to the Pirbright Institute.Peer Reviewe

Comparative Proteomics Reveals Differences in Host-Pathogen Interaction between Infectious and Commensal Relationship with Campylobacter jejuni

Copyright © 2017 Ayllón, Jiménez-Marín, Argüello, Zaldívar-López, Villar, Aguilar, Moreno, De La Fuente and Garrido. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.[EN] Campylobacter jejuni is the leading food-borne poisoning in industrialized countries. While the bacteria causes disease in humans, it merely colonizes the gut in poultry or pigs, where seems to establish a commensal relationship. Until now, few studies have been conducted to elucidate the relationship between C. jejuni and its different hosts. In this work, a comparative proteomics approach was used to identify the underlying mechanisms involved in the divergent outcome following C. jejuni infection in human and porcine host. Human (INT-407) and porcine (IPEC-1) intestinal cell lines were infected by C. jejuni for 3 h (T3h) and 24 h (T24h). C. jejuni infection prompted an intense inflammatory response at T3h in human intestinal cells, mainly characterized by expression of proteins involved in cell spreading, cell migration and promotion of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Proteomic analysis evidenced significantly regulated biofunctions in human cells related with engulfment and endocytosis, and supported by canonical pathways associated to infection such as caveolar- and clathrin-mediated endocytosis signaling. In porcine IPEC-1 cells, inflammatory response as well as signaling pathways that control cellular functions such as cell migration, endocytosis and cell cycle progression resulted downregulated. These differences in the host response to infection were supported by the different pattern of adhesion and invasion proteins expressed by C. jejuni in human and porcine cells. No marked differences in expression of virulence factors involved in adaptive response and iron acquisition functions were observed. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that both host and pathogen factors are responsible for commensal or infectious character of C. jejuni in different hosts.SIThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2014-54089-R). SZ is a postdoctoral researcher supported by the Postdoctoral Trainee Program of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FPDI2013-15619). HA is a postdoctoral researcher supported by the Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Trainee Program of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FJCI-2014-22877). MV was supported by the Research Plan of the University of the Castilla-La Mancha, SpainWe thank the Andalusian Platform of Bioinformatics (PAB) from the University of Malaga for granting the right to use IPA bioinformatic tools

Reciprocal regulation of NF-kB (Relish) and subolesin in the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis

[Background]: Tick Subolesin and its ortholog in insects and vertebrates, Akirin, have been suggested to play a role in the immune response through regulation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB)-dependent and independent gene expression via interaction with intermediate proteins that interact with NF-kB and other regulatory proteins, bind DNA or remodel chromatin to regulate gene expression. The objective of this study was to characterize the structure and regulation of subolesin in Ixodes scapularis. I. scapularis is a vector of emerging pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti that cause in humans Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, respectively. The genome of I. scapularis was recently sequenced, and this tick serves as a model organism for the study of vector-host-pathogen interactions. However, basic biological questions such as gene organization and regulation are largely unknown in ticks and other arthropod vectors. [Principal Findings]: The results presented here provide evidence that subolesin/akirin are evolutionarily conserved at several levels (primary sequence, gene organization and function), thus supporting their crucial biological function in metazoans. These results showed that NF-kB (Relish) is involved in the regulation of subolesin expression in ticks, suggesting that as in other organisms, different NF-kB integral subunits and/or unknown interacting proteins regulate the specificity of the NF-kB-mediated gene expression. These results suggested a regulatory network involving cross-regulation between NF-kB (Relish) and Subolesin and Subolesin auto-regulation with possible implications in tick immune response to bacterial infection. [Significance]: These results advance our understanding of gene organization and regulation in I. scapularis and have important implications for arthropod vectors genetics and immunology highlighting the possible role of NF-kB and Subolesin/Akirin in vector-pathogen interactions and for designing new strategies for the control of vector infestations and pathogen transmission.This research was supported by grants BFU2008-01244/BMC and BFU2011-23896 to JF, the Oklahoma Agricultural Experimental Grant 1669 and the Walter R. Sitlington Endowed Chair for Food Animal Research to KMK, and the EU FP7 ANTIGONE project number 278976. V. Naranjo was funded by the European Social Fund and the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (Program FSE 2007-2013), Spain. N. Ayllón was funded by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), Spain.Peer Reviewe

Expression of Heat Shock and Other Stress Response Proteins in Ticks and Cultured Tick Cells in Response to Anaplasma spp. Infection and Heat Shock

Ticks are ectoparasites of animals and humans that serve as vectors of Anaplasma and other pathogens that affect humans and animals worldwide. Ticks and the pathogens that they transmit have coevolved molecular interactions involving genetic traits of both the tick and the pathogen that mediate their development and survival. In this paper, the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and other stress response proteins (SRPs) was characterized in ticks and cultured tick cells by proteomics and transcriptomics analyses in response to Anaplasma spp. infection and heat shock. The results of these studies demonstrated that the stress response was activated in ticks and cultured tick cells after Anaplasma spp. infection and heat shock. However, in the natural vector-pathogen relationship, HSPs and other SRPs were not strongly activated, which likely resulted from tick-pathogen coevolution. These results also demonstrated pathogen- and tick-specific differences in the expression of HSPs and other SRPs in ticks and cultured tick cells infected with Anaplasma spp. and suggested the existence of post-transcriptional mechanisms induced by Anaplasma spp. to control tick response to infection. These results illustrated the complexity of the stress response in ticks and suggested a function for the HSPs and other SRPs during Anaplasma spp. infection

Anaplasma phagocytophilum MSP4 and HSP70 proteins are involved in interactions with host cells during pathogen infection.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum transmembrane and surface proteins play a role during infection and multiplication in host neutrophils and tick vector cells. Recently, A. phagocytophilum Major surface protein 4 (MSP4) and Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) were shown to be localized on the bacterial membrane, with a possible role during pathogen infection in ticks. In this study, we hypothesized that A. phagocytophilum MSP4 and HSP70 have similar functions in tick-pathogen and host-pathogen interactions. To address this hypothesis, herein we characterized the role of these bacterial proteins in interaction and infection of vertebrate host cells. The results showed that A. phagocytophilum MSP4 and HSP70 are involved in host-pathogen interactions, with a role for HSP70 during pathogen infection. The analysis of the potential protective capacity of MSP4 and MSP4-HSP70 antigens in immunized sheep showed that MSP4- HSP70 was only partially protective against pathogen infection. This limited protection may be associated with several factors, including the recognition of non-protective epitopes by IgG in immunized lambs. Nevertheless, these antigens may be combined with other candidate protective antigens for the development of vaccines for the control of human and animal granulocytic anaplasmosis. Focusing on the characterization of host protective immune mechanisms and protein-protein interactions at the host-pathogen interface may lead to the discovery and design of new effective protective antigens