Interactions among <i>Ixodes ricinus</i> tick saliva, murine dendritic cells and the tick-borne encephalitis virus

Abstract

Dendritic cells are among the first cells that encounter salivary antigens of blood-feeding arthropods, and are also supposed to be the early targets of tick-borne encephalitis virus, an important human pathogen naturally delivered into host skin via a bite of an infected tick. This thesis has generally focused on studying the impact of tick saliva on dendritic cell biology, and, subsequently, effects of infection with two different tick-borne encephalitis virus strains on dendritic cell maturation, cytokine production, T cell activation and apoptosis in the presence or absence of the tick saliva.