Pat Nuttall

Patricia (Pat) Anne Nuttall, OBE (born 1953)[1] is a British virologist and acarologist known for her research on tick-borne diseases.

[4][9] During this research, Nuttall visited sea-bird colonies and became interested in ticks, arthropods that often infest sea birds as well as other vertebrates, and can act as vectors for disease.

[4][11][12][14] Sarah Randolph comments: Suddenly the conventional wisdom that systemic infections above a certain threshold level were necessary for transmission, and could therefore be used to assay host competence, was over-turned.

[14] Nuttall's group has continued to study the phenomenon, and have shown that immunity to tick-borne encephalitis virus does not prevent nonsystemic transmission.

[17] Nuttall's recent work has focused on discovering the function of tick saliva's many constituents, as well as the mechanisms by which tick-transmitted pathogens use them to enhance their transmission.

[12][20][21] With Norbert Fuchsberger, Valeria Hajnicka and others, Nuttall has shown that tick saliva suppresses the host's antiviral immune responses, including natural killer cell activity and the induction of type I interferon and cytokines involved in inflammation.

"[22] For example, with Guido Paesen, Nuttall has characterised histamine-binding proteins that can suppress inflammation in humans by binding directly to histamine, rather than blocking its access to cell receptors, of which at least four are known.

[4][22] Another example is the anticoagulant variegin, discovered by Nuttall and Maria Kazimirova in the tropical bont tick (Amblyomma variegatum), which represents a novel class of thrombin inhibitor; it has been shown to prevent venous thrombosis in a zebrafish model.

[3][20] One vaccine candidate explored by Nuttall's group is 64TRP, a 15 kDa Rhipicephalus appendiculatus protein from the cement cone that glues the tick's mouthparts to the host.