Tick salivary proteins offer the lyme disease spirochetes an easy ride and another way to hide.

ABSTRACT

The ability of the Lyme disease spirochetes to establish an infection in mammals is dependent in part on proteins of tick origin. Schuijt et al. (2011) investigate the role of the tick-derived protein, TSLPI, in spirochete transmission and in the evasion of killing by the lectin complement pathway.