PROTEOMICS ANALYSIS OF THE SALIVARY SECRETIONS FROM THE Amblyomma cajennense TICK (ACARI: IXODIDAE) (FABRICIUS: 1787)

SIMONS S. M. (1), RICCI-SILVA M. E. (1), VALENTE R. H. (2), LEON I. R. (2), PERALES J. (2), CHUDZINSKI-TAVASSI A. M. (1).

(1) Laboratório de Bioquímica e Biofísica. Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. (2) Departamento de Fisiologia e Farmacodinâmica. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - IOC-FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ , Brasil.

Ticks, such as Amblyomma cajennense, are the main vectors for several pathologies, such as babesiosis, Maculosa Fever and Lyme-Simile disease. Bloodsucker’ saliva contains a complex mixture of bioactives components, which interfere in their host’s physiological mechanisms. In this work, we used proteomics approaches to investigate the protein profile in the tick’s saliva. The saliva was collected according to the method described by Kaufman, then the sample was precipitated by TCA to perform the bidimensional electrophoresis (2D) analysis. The proteins from 2D gel were revealed by silver staining (using a protocol compatible with mass spectrometry analysis), the selected spots were removed, digested by trypsin and submitted to mass spectrometry analysis (MALDI-TOF-TOF). The protein identification was performed by carrying out PMF and/or MS/MS analyses, and the sequences were searched in MASCOT data bank. The 2D gel of reached by the crude saliva showed 110 spots, the pI range was between 3.5 and 9.5; the range of molecular mass was from 12 to 160 kDa. Previously our group identified some anticoagulant proteins from the tick saliva, and among them low (about 7,5-15 kDa) and high (about 60-70 kDa) molecular weight proteins were found, due to this we select the same range of molecular mass to sequence the proteins and the preliminary spots selected were about 14 KDa, the protein analysis by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry identified a hemoglobin-like protein (alpha and beta chains), the hypotheses of this protein belong to the host origin is not discarded; however the other analysis will be done to check out the obtained data and to continue the sequence of the other spots.

KEY WORDS: Amblyomma cajennense, ticks, crude saliva, proteomic, anticoagulant

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: FAPESP, FINEP-COINFAR

CORRESPONDENCE TO: Simone Michaela Simons, Lab. de Bioquímica e Biofísica, Instituto Butantan, SP, Brasil. Phone 55 (11) 3726-7222 r 2109. E-mail: smsimons@butantan.gov.br