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Biological glue found tick-cement could kitten human tissue
When you think about ticks, you quickly think of dangerous infectious diseases. The little bloodsuckers may also be beneficial to human health. Researchers believe that it is possible to use the substance with which the animals anchor themselves in the skin, and possibly also human tendons and ligaments.
Ticks are difficult to remove
Since ticks can transmit dangerous diseases such as TBE (tick-borne encephalitis) or Lyme disease, it is generally advised to check the small animals after a stay in risk areas. Anyone who brings ticks home after a trip to nature knows how difficult it is to remove the bloodsuckers from the skin. The substance that enables them to become so firmly anchored could bring great benefits to humans, as Austrian researchers now report.
Although ticks can transmit dangerous diseases, they also appear to be beneficial to human health. Human tissue may be cemented with the substance that anchors the animals to the skin. (Image: emer / fotolia.com) Substance with enormous adhesive properties
Ticks can become firmly anchored in the skin and thus suck blood for several days. This anchoring mechanism works so well because it is based on a cementitious substance and works with tremendous adhesive properties, such as an adhesive plug for the ticks' mouthparts.
Scientists from the Medical University (MedUni) Vienna and the Technical University (TU) Vienna want to research this "tick cement" for the first time and make it chemically reconstructed for biomaterials research.
Biological adhesive for human tissue
Project leader Sylvia Nürnberger from the University Clinic for Trauma Surgery said in a statement: "It is quite conceivable that in the future it will be possible to make of this substance a biological adhesive for human tissue, with which, for example, tendons and ligaments are anchored metal-free on the bone can."
Together with Martina Marchetti-Deschmann from the Vienna University of Technology, Nürnberger examines the composition of the natural dowel of the ticks and how it could serve as a template for new tissue adhesives.
"The currently used tissue adhesives in surgery, which are used for example in severe skin injuries or liver tears, are partially toxic," said the MedUni Vienna researcher. Other adhesives are again too weak. Therefore, biological alternatives would be optimal.
Giant ticks are to be examined
The project is part of the COST Action of the European Union. COST (European "Cooperation in Science and Technology") is a European network for the co-operation of national and international research activities in science and technology, including that for bioadhesion.
The EU network "Bioklebstoffe", coordinated by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology in Vienna, currently comprises 150 researchers from 30 countries.
The research project aims to help find new alternatives and applications to existing skin, cartilage, ligament or tendon adhesive products.
According to the information, around 300 ticks from Austria and their "cement" are currently being analyzed and analyzed at MedUni Vienna. The animals pierce through a skin-like membrane, wherein the adhesive is secreted and cured.
It is said that giant ticks for this purpose are to be investigated in South Africa this year.
Other possible biological glue dispensers
There are other possible biological glue dispensers. For example, international research groups have succeeded in recreating and producing alternative adhesives with the mussel's adhesive threads whose adhesive molecule DOPA (a change in the amino acid tyrosine) is already in the preclinical test phase.
"However, the DOPA adhesive mechanism is not suitable for all medical areas because of the low adhesive strength, so that there is still a need for new adhesives," said Nürnberger.
Other potential "glue dispensers" include sea cucumbers that throw glue on their prey; Salamander species that secrete lightning-curing glue from skin glands when attacked; or insect larvae that produce catching threads and crabs that stick even under water. (Ad)