Vol. 7, Issue 5 (2018)

Author(s):
Surbhi, Nirmal Sangwan, Arun K Sangwan and Ankit Kumar

Abstract:
The cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus is a haematophagous ectoparasite that has a huge economic and health impacts. They act as a potential vector for the transmission of pathogenic micro-organism such as Babesia spp. and Anaplasma spp. leading to considerable economic losses for cattle farming throughout the world. They deposit their saliva having bioactive molecules at the site of their attachment to a host in order to inhibit haemostasis so as to suck host blood successfully. Therefore, the study was planned to isolate anti-platelet aggregating peptides from salivary gland extract (SGE) of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus ticks. Female ticks were dissected out and homogenized in HEPES buffer under the ice to prepare salivary gland extract. Proteins were fractionated by gel filtration chromatography using Sephacryl S-200 column. Total protein concentration in fractions was estimated. Isolated bovine platelets were treated with Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro amide (negative control) and with salivary gland fractions and then stimulated with thrombin (positive control), for identification of proteins/peptides having anti-platelet aggregating activities. A total of 9 fractions having the protein concentration of 0.88 to 61.3µg/ml showed platelet aggregation inhibition ranged from 27.1-34.7 %. The results suggest that the fractions of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus salivary glands possess thrombin induced anti-platelet aggregating activity and which could be further exploited for raising anti-tick vaccine and also for the therapeutic purpose.