↓ Skip to main content

Physiological and immunological responses to Culicoides sonorensis blood-feeding: a murine model

Overview of attention for article published in Parasites & Vectors, June 2018
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

twitter
4 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
5 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
22 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Physiological and immunological responses to Culicoides sonorensis blood-feeding: a murine model
Published in
Parasites & Vectors, June 2018
DOI 10.1186/s13071-018-2935-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Christopher J. Lehiy, Lindsey M. Reister-Hendricks, Mark G. Ruder, D. Scott McVey, Barbara S. Drolet

Abstract

Hematophagous Culicoides spp. biting midges are of great agricultural importance as livestock, equine, and wildlife pests and as vectors of the orbiviruses bluetongue, epizootic hemorrhagic disease and African horse sickness. To obtain a blood meal, midges deposit saliva containing allergens, proteases, and anti-hemostatic factors, into the dermis to facilitate feeding. Infected midges deposit virus along with the myriad of salivary proteins during feeding. The extreme efficiency with which midges are able to transmit orbiviruses is not clearly understood, as much is still unknown about the physiological trauma of the bite and immune responses to saliva deposited during feeding. Of particular interest are the first few hours and days after the bite; a critical time period for any midge-transmitted virus to quickly establish a localized infection and disseminate, while avoiding the hosts' immune responses. A mouse-midge feeding model using colonized Culicoides sonorensis midges was used to characterize innate mammalian immune responses to blood-feeding. Histological analysis of skin, and cellular and cytokine profiles of draining lymph nodes show Culicoides midge feeding elicited a potent pro-inflammatory Th-mediated cellular response with significant mast cell activation, subcutaneous hematomas, hypodermal edema and dermal capillary vasodilation, and rapid infiltration of leukocytes to the bite sites. Mast cell degranulation, triggered by bite trauma and specifically by midge saliva, was key to physiological and immunological responses and the ability of midges to feed to repletion. Midge feeding causes physiological and immunological responses that would be highly favorable for rapid infection and systemic dissemination orbiviruses if delivered during blood-feeding. Recruitment of leukocytic cells to bitten skin brings susceptible cell populations in proximity of deposited virus within hours of feeding. Infected cells would drain to lymph nodes, which become hyperplastic in response to saliva, and result in robust viral replication in expanding cell populations and dissemination via the lymph system. Additionally, saliva-induced vasodilation and direct breaches in dermal capillaries by biting mouthparts exposes susceptible vascular endothelial cells, thereby providing immediate sites of virus replication and a dissemination route via the circulatory system. This research provides insights into the efficiency of Culicoides midges as orbivirus vectors.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 22 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 22 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 23%
Researcher 5 23%
Professor 1 5%
Student > Doctoral Student 1 5%
Student > Master 1 5%
Other 1 5%
Unknown 8 36%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 3 14%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 9%
Immunology and Microbiology 2 9%
Computer Science 1 5%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 11 50%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 August 2018.
All research outputs
#13,619,233
of 23,090,520 outputs
Outputs from Parasites & Vectors
#2,483
of 5,521 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#168,944
of 328,081 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Parasites & Vectors
#77
of 147 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,090,520 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,521 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.7. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 328,081 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 147 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.