ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2014
Evaluation of the murine immune response to Xenopsylla cheopis flea saliva and its effect on transmission of Yersinia pestis.
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 12 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interaction of Bacteria and Fleas, Focusing on the Plague Bacterium-A Review.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Evidence of a role for the F1 capsule ofmBio · 2025Article
- Effects of Different Levels of Flea Infestation on Gut Microbiota of Brandt's Voles (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Impacts of ectoparasite flea infestation on gut microbiota of the Meriones unguiculatus in a rodent-flea system.Parasitology research · 2024Article
- Transcriptome analysis of Kunming mice responses to the bite of Xenopsylla cheopis.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Metabolism and immune responses of striped hamsters to ectoparasite challenges: insights from transcriptomic analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Article
- A Role for Early-Phase Transmission in the Enzootic Maintenance of Plague.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Integrated analysis of the sialotranscriptome and sialoproteome of the rat flea Xenopsylla cheopis.Journal of proteomics · 2022Article
- Article
- Intravital Confocal Microscopy of Dermal Innate Immune Responses to Flea-Transmitted Yersinia pestis.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2019Article
- Dissemination of a highly virulent pathogen: tracking the early events that define infection.PLoS pathogens · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsArthropod-borne pathogens are transmitted into a unique intradermal microenvironment that includes the saliva of their vectors. Immunomodulatory factors in the saliva can enhance infectivity; however, in some cases the immune response that develops to saliva from prior uninfected bites can inhibit infectivity. Most rodent reservoirs of Yersinia pestis experience fleabites regularly, but the effect this has on the dynamics of flea-borne transmission of plague has never been investigated. We examined the innate and acquired immune response of mice to bites of Xenopsylla cheopis and its effects on Y. pestis transmission and disease progression in both naïve mice and mice chronically exposed to flea bites. METHODS/PRINCIPAL
findingsThe immune response of C57BL/6 mice to uninfected flea bites was characterized by flow cytometry, histology, and antibody detection methods. In naïve mice, flea bites induced mild inflammation with limited recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages to the bite site. Infectivity and host response in naïve mice exposed to flea bites followed immediately by intradermal injection of Y. pestis did not differ from that of mice infected with Y. pestis without prior flea feeding. With prolonged exposure, an IgG1 antibody response primarily directed to the predominant component of flea saliva, a family of 36-45 kDa phosphatase-like proteins, occurred in both laboratory mice and wild rats naturally exposed to X. cheopis, but a hypersensitivity response never developed. The incidence and progression of terminal plague following challenge by infective blocked fleas were equivalent in naïve mice and mice sensitized to flea saliva by repeated exposure to flea bites over a 10-week period.
conclusionsUnlike what is observed with many other blood-feeding arthropods, the murine immune response to X. cheopis saliva is mild and continued exposure to flea bites leads more to tolerance than to hypersensitivity. The immune response to flea saliva had no detectable effect on Y. pestis transmission or plague pathogenesis in mice.
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