Oral Presentation International Veterinary Immunology Symposium 2016

Development of monoclonal antibodies as therapeutic tools for tick paralysis (#51)

Manuel Rodriguez Valle 1 , Beibei Chen 1 , Sonia McAlister 1 , Ala Lew-Tabor 1 2
  1. University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  2. Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia

The Ixodes holocyclus tick causes paralysis in up to 10,000 companion and domestic animals each year in Australia. It has been determined that holocyclotoxins (HTs) are crucial neurotoxins secreted from tick’s salivary gland during tick feeding. Current treatment of tick paralysis relies upon the administration of anti-serum obtained from hyperimmunized dogs which is a combination of polyclonal antibodies and is only effective during the early stages of paralysis. Our research is mainly focussed on the development of an alternative treatment using monoclonal antibodies. Currently, several monoclonal antibodies have been produced using hybriboma technology. Through ELISA screening, the binding and capture ability of these monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was studied using synthetic holocyclotoxins(HTs). BIAcore analysis confirmed the effectiveness of these mAbs and provided valuable data associated with the kinetic parameters of this binding. These synthetic HTs and the mAbs are being exploited in the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the evaluation of commercial anti-paralysis tick dog serum products, and we have commenced sequencing of the mAb variable regions to develop bispecific mAbs. This research will lead to the development of safer and specific treatments for tick paralysis in Australia.