Alpha-gal syndrome was discovered backwards. In the mid-2000s researchers including Thomas Platts-Mills and Scott Commins were trying to explain why some cancer patients reacted severely to the drug cetuximab. The shared antibody target turned out to be the alpha-gal sugar - and the geographic overlap with the lone star tick range pointed to the source of sensitization.
Alpha-gal syndrome is the only known food allergy acquired from an arthropod bite. The lone star tick injects…
The delayed-onset allergic reaction is what makes alpha-gal syndrome so easy to miss. Most food allergies trigger within minutes;…
A single tick species, Amblyomma americanum, transmits ehrlichiosis from Ehrlichia chaffeensis and E. ewingii, tularemia, Heartland virus,…
Southern tick-associated rash illness produces an expanding red rash that looks indistinguishable from early Lyme disease, but it follows…
Amblyomma americanum, the lone star tick, is named for the single white spot on the female's scutum. Unlike Ixodes ticks, which sit and…
Despite expanding overlap with Lyme disease in the southeastern United States, Amblyomma americanum (the lone star tick) does not transmit…