major step in battling Lyme disease and other dangerous tick-borne viruses may have been taken as researchers announced they have developed a vaccine against the ticks themselves.
Rather than combatting the effects of the bacteria or microbe that causes Lyme disease, the vaccine targets the microbiota of the tick, according to a paper published in the journal Microbiota on Monday.
The research by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, in collaboration with the National Social Security Administration and the National Veterinary School of Alfort, found a way to use a harmless bacteria as a sort of Trojan horse to stimulate the production of antibodies that interact with the microbiota of the tick, preventing the tick from being colonized by the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
