Base de Información Bioantropológica de Patagonia Austral (B.I.B.P.A)

The human skeletal remains of Southern Patagonia are scattered throughout numerous European and American institutions. Currently there are more than 1150 individuals in those institutions. Information about the remains and the peer-reviewed published bioanthropological information about each of them have been compiled in the Base de Información Bioantropológica de Patagonia Austral (Southern Patagonian Bioanthropological Information Base). This platform is conceived as a tool that seeks to facilitate and streamline the work of the community of bioanthropologists and other scientists. The database is public and open source, and it is available to both the scientific community and the wider public. It will be updated periodically, with the information that the community generates and makes available to its peers by meansof the various formats that scientists employ to publish their scientific work.Los restos óseos humanos de Patagonia Austral se encuentran dispersos en numerosas instituciones europeas y americanas. Actualmente se contabilizan más de 1150 individuos. Esos sujetos y la información de orden bioantropológica publicada acerca de cada uno de ellos ha sido compilada en la Base de Información Bioantropológica de Patagonia Austral. Esta plataforma se concibe como una herramienta que busca facilitar y agilizar la labor de la comunidad de antropólogos biólogos y afines, de la región. Es de carácter público y código abierto, y se encuentra a disposición tanto de la comunidad científica como de la sociedad. Se actualizará de manera periódica, con la información que la comunidad genere y ponga a disposición de sus pares a través de los diversos formatos que los científicos tienen para difundir su labor científica

Functional and Mass Spectrometric Evaluation of an Anti-Tick Antigen Based on the P0 Peptide Conjugated to Bm86 Protein

A synthetic 20 amino acid peptide of the ribosomal protein P0 from ticks, when conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin from Megathura crenulata and used as an immunogen against Rhipicephalus microplus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. species, has shown efficacies of around 90%. There is also experimental evidence of a high efficacy of this conjugate against Amblyomma mixtum and Ixodes ricinus species, which suggest that this antigen could be a good broad-spectrum anti-tick vaccine candidate. In this study, the P0 peptide (pP0) was chemically conjugated to Bm86 as a carrier protein. SDS-PAGE analysis of this conjugate demonstrated that it is highly heterogeneous in size, carrying from 1 to 18 molecules of pP0 per molecule of Bm86. Forty-nine out of the 54 lysine residues and the N-terminal end of Bm86 were found partially linked to pP0 by using LC-MS/MS analysis and the combination of four different softwares. Several post-translational modifications of Bm86 protein were also identified by mass spectrometry. High immunogenicity and efficacy were achieved when dogs and cattle were vaccinated with the pP0–Bm86 conjugate and challenged with R. sanguineus s.l. and R. microplus, respectively. These results encourage the development of this antigen with promising possibilities as an anti-tick vaccine