ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2014
MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry detection of pathogens in vectors: the Borrelia crocidurae/Ornithodoros sonrai paradigm.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- [West African tick-borne relapsing fever, a neglected disease of major public health importance in Senegal].Medecine tropicale et sante internationale · 2025Pooled it
- Assessment of MALDI-TOF MS for Arthropod Identification Based on Exuviae Spectra Analysis.Biological procedures online · 2025Article
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- Genomic and Proteomic Analyses of Bacterial Communities ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Making MALDI-TOF MS for entomological parameters accessible: A practical guide for in-house library creation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Enhanced procedures for mosquito identification by MALDI-TOF MS.Parasites & vectors · 2022Article
- A single tick screening for infectious pathogens using targeted mass spectrometry.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2022Article
- Clinical Chemistry for Developing Countries: Mass Spectrometry.Annual review of analytical chemistry (Palo Alto, Calif.) · 2021Review
- Hymenopteran Parasitoids of Hard Ticks in Western Africa and the Russian Far East.Microorganisms · 2020Article
- Development of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for the identification of lice isolated from farm animals.Parasite (Paris, France) · 2020Article
- A Novel Rapid Sample Preparation Method for MALDI-TOF MS PermitsFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Identification of French Guiana sand flies using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with a new mass spectra library.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Article
- Identification of closely related Ixodes species by protein profiling with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.PloS one · 2019Article
- MALDI-TOF MS and point of care are disruptive diagnostic tools in Africa.New microbes and new infections · 2018Article
- Detection of Bartonella spp. in fleas by MALDI-TOF MS.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Assessment of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for filariae detection in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Article
- Molecular and MALDI-TOF identification of ticks and tick-associated bacteria in Mali.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Article
- MALDI-TOF MS Profiling-Advances in Species Identification of Pests, Parasites, and Vectors.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2017Review
- Assessment of MALDI-TOF MS biotyping for Borrelia burgdorferi sl detection in Ixodes ricinus.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn Africa, relapsing fever borreliae are neglected vector-borne pathogens that cause mild to deadly septicemia and miscarriage. Screening vectors for the presence of borreliae currently requires technically demanding, time- and resource-consuming molecular methods. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) has recently emerged as a tool for the rapid identification of vectors and the identification of cultured borreliae. We investigated whether MALDI-TOF-MS could detect relapsing fever borreliae directly in ticks. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsAs a first step, a Borrelia MALDI-TOF-MS database was created to house the newly determined Mean Spectrum Projections for four Lyme disease group and ten relapsing fever group reference borreliae. MALDI-TOF-MS yielded a unique protein profile for each of the 14 tested Borrelia species, with 100% reproducibility over 12 repeats. In a second proof-of-concept step, the Borrelia database and a custom software program that subtracts the uninfected O. sonrai profile were used to detect Borrelia crocidurae in 20 Ornithodoros sonrai ticks, including eight ticks that tested positive for B. crocidurae by PCR-sequencing. A B. crocidurae-specific pattern consisting of 3405, 5071, 5898, 7041, 8580 and 9757-m/z peaks was found in all B. crocidurae-infected ticks and not found in any of the un-infected ticks. In a final blind validation step, MALDI-TOF-MS exhibited 88.9% sensitivity and 93.75% specificity for the detection of B. crocidurae in 50 O. sonrai ticks, including 18 that tested positive for B. crocidurae by PCR-sequencing. MALDI-TOF-MS took 45 minutes to be completed. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: After the development of an appropriate database, MALDI-TOF-MS can be used to identify tick species and the presence of relapsing fever borreliae in a single assay. This work paves the way for the use of MALDI-TOF-MS for the dual identification of vectors and vectorized pathogens.
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