Studies have shown for the first time that ticks weaken the immune response of the skin

To date, scientists have not fully understood why ticks are such a dangerous disease vector
.
A team of researchers led by Johanna strorol and Georg Stary of the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Vienna showed that tick saliva inhibits the skin's defense function, thereby increasing the risk
of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) or Lyme disease and other diseases.
The study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The researchers investigated skin samples from volunteers and human skin models that simulated the bites
of the most common European ticks (hard ticks).
In both cases, the team led by Georg Stary (Department of Dermatology, University of Medicine, CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases) worked with the research team of Hannes Stockinger (Center for Pathophysiology, Infection and Immunology of the University of Medical Sciences of Vienna) to identify rapidly occurring immunomodulatory patterns
.
For example, studies have found that exposure to tick saliva disrupts the function of immune cells, especially T cells
, which are important for immune memory.

Scientists made similar observations about the early stages of a model of Borrelia burgdorferi infection, Borrelia burgdorferi is the most common cause of
Lyme disease.
They found that pre-incubating eggs with Lyme disease-borne bacteria (Treponema burgdorferi) with tick salivary gland extracts hinders the accumulation of immune cells in the skin and increases the burden on
pathogens.
"Overall, we found that predation on ticks causes profound changes in the skin's immune system, suppressing local immune responses
.
This means that dangerous pathogens that enter the skin along with tick saliva can multiply more easily, leading to infection," said Johanna Strobl, first author of the study, summarizing the main findings
.

Austria is one of
the countries where ticks are most endemic.
Almost every 2 European ticks are infected with pathogens, with Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis being the most common tick-borne diseases
.
Arachnids begin to move
at a temperature of 7 degrees.
Ticks are now also threatened at Austria's high altitudes due to rising temperatures due to climate change, which continues into late autumn
.