Effect of tetracycline on development of Anaplasma marginale in cultured Ixodes scapularis cells

Infections of the tick-borne ehrlichial pathogen, Anaplasma marginale, in cattle have been controlled, in part, by administration of low doses of tetracycline. Recently, a cell culture system was developed for A. marginale using a tick cell line derived from embryonic Ixodes scapularis. This study was designed to determine the effect of tetracycline on A. marginale propagated in a tick cell culture assay. Various concentrations of tetracycline (0, 0.01, 0.10, 1.0, 5, 10, 20 or 100 microg/ml) were added in medium to cultures 48h after cell monolayers were inoculated with A. marginale. A. marginale growth in the drug treated and control cultures was subsequently evaluated by indirect ELISA at 7 days post-infection (PI) and daily by light and electron microscopy (LM and EM). Infectivity of the culture-derived A. marginale was determined by inoculation of susceptible cattle with treated and untreated control cultures. Tetracycline doses of 5, 10, 20 and 100 microg/ml resulted in significant inhibition of A. marginale growth as determined by ELISA. Morphologic deterioration of Anaplasma, as determined by LM and EM, occurred in cultures treated with the same drug concentrations. A. marginale replication, inhibited in cultures treated on days 2-6 PI with 20 microg/ml tetracycline, was not apparent 96 days after antibiotic removal. Infected cell cultures treated with medium containing 20 microg/ml tetracycline proved to be non-infective when inoculated into susceptible splenectomized calves. All parameters studied herein demonstrated that tetracycline killed A. marginale in cultured tick cells. The Anaplasma-tick cell culture drug assay therefore, would be useful for screening and evaluating novel antibiotics for control of anaplasmosis.