The Pharmacopea within Triatomine Salivary Glands

• Published in: Trends in parasitology Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 250 - 265
• Main Authors: Santiago, Paula B., de Araújo, Carla N., Charneau, Sébastien, Praça, Yanna R., Bastos, Izabela M.D., Ribeiro, José M.C., Santana, Jaime M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2020
• Subjects: Chagas' disease; hematophagy; proteomics; transcriptomics; triatominae saliva; hematophagy; transcriptomics; triatominae saliva; Chagas' disease; proteomics
• ISSN: 1471-4922; 1471-5007
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2019.12.014

Triatomines are blood-feeding insects that prey on vertebrate hosts. Their saliva is largely responsible for their feeding success. The triatomine salivary content has been studied over the past decades, revealing multifunctional bioactive proteins targeting the host´s hemostasis and immune system. Recently, sequencing of salivary-gland mRNA libraries revealed increasingly complex and complete transcript databases that have been used to validate the expression of deduced proteins through proteomics. This review provides an insight into the journey of discovery and characterization of novel molecules in triatomine saliva.
There are currently nine annotated sialotranscriptomes, six descriptive sialoproteomes, and seven sialomes from triatomine bugs.Gene duplication events generated many salivary protein families.There are at least 100 salivary proteins produced by a single species, with substantial interspecies diversity.These proteins inhibit blood coagulation, platelet aggregation, and complement activation, and they induce vasodilation and immune modulation.Many protein families remain enigmatic, without similarities to known proteins or motifs, and without a known function.