The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the principal vector of arboviruses such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika virus. These arboviruses are transmitted during adult female mosquito bloodfeeding. While these viruses must transverse the midgut to replicate, the blood meal must also reach the midgut to be digested, absorbed, or excreted, as aggregation of blood meal metabolites can be toxic...

The ability to feed on vertebrate blood has evolved many times in various arthropod clades. Each time this trait evolves, novel solutions to the problem posed by vertebrate hemostasis are generated. Consequently, saliva of blood-feeding arthropods has proven to be a rich source of antihemostatic molecules. Vasodilators include nitrophorins (nitric oxide storage and transport heme proteins), a v...

Saliva of hematophagous leeches (Hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. Leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins are characterized yet. Moreover, we do not know whether complete transfer of salivary proteins sto...

Salivary gland proteins of Anopheles mosquitoes offer attractive targets to understand interactions with sporozoites, blood feeding behavior, homeostasis, and immunological evaluation of malaria vectors and parasite interactions. To date limited studies have been carried out to elucidate salivary proteins of An. stephensi salivary glands. The aim of the present study was to provide detailed ana...

Salivary biomarkers have been increasingly popular in stress research as saliva is easily produced and collection is non-invasive and not limited by geographical distance or lack of infrastructure. Several salivary biomarkers have been utilized in stress research, for instance, salivary cortisol, salivary amylase and salivary immunoglobulin A. Despite being sensitive to changes in fatigue, they...

Crystallographic data analyses indicate that three types of prolinium cations, along with two types of hydrogen bonding, produce and stabilize the helical structure of triprolinium 12-phosphomolybdate. There are similarities between this organic-inorganic compound and peptides/proteins. The stronger “conventional” hydrogen bonds and the less common C-H…O attractions play critical roles in gener...

Crystallographic data analyses indicate that  three types of prolinium cations, along with two types of hydrogen  bonding,  produce and stabilize the helical structure of  triprolinium 12-phosphomolybdate. There are similarities between this organic-inorganic compound and peptides/proteins. The stronger “conventional” hydrogen bonds and the less common C-H…O attractions play critical roles in g...

Saliva diagnostics utilizing nanotechnology and molecular technologies to detect oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has become an attractive field of study. However, no specific methods have been established. To refine the diagnostic power of saliva peptide fingerprints for the early detection of OSCC, we screened the expression spectrum of salivary peptides in 40 T1 stage OSCC patients (and h...

This study suggests degradation of salivary acidic proline-rich proteins (PRPs) into potential innate-immunity-like peptides by oral Streptococcus and Actinomyces species. PRP degradation paralleled cleavage of Pro-containing substrates. PRP degradation by S. gordonii strain SK12 instantly released a Pyr(1)-Pro(104)Pro(105) and a Gly(111)-Pro(149)Gln(150) peptide together with a presumed Arg(10...

Toxin technology using Bacillus sphaericus has been used to control the important vectors of human diseases, the Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito species. Agricultural pests such as caterpillars and beetles have been targeted by transgenic insecticidal crops expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin. However, a Bt technology would be ineffective in controlling xylem-and phlo...