| Organism: | Rhipicephalus sanguineus |
| Uniprot: | P0C8E9 |
| Symbol: | Eva1 |
| Evasin-4 | |
Evasins are a family of salivary proteins produced in parasitic ticks which are capable of shutting off the first steps of an immune response brought about by chemokines.[1] These proteins are injected into a tick's host to prevent a painful inflammation that might otherwise alert the host to the tick's presence. As chemokines have been implicated in a number of inflammatory diseases including atherosclerosis, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer, chemokine-binding proteins such as evasins are being researched to assess their therapeutic potential as chemokine-targeting antagonists.[2]
The same term is also used to refer to other proteins.
The brown dog tick evasin-4 binds to CCL5 and CCL11, but appears to neutralize even more chemokines.[3] It has an Ig-fold domain. Other evasins in this organism include Evasin-1 and Evasin-3 .
Evasin is also used to refer to any viral proteins used for the evasion of the immune responses. This usage is rare.[4]
The term is also used to refer to "Endogenous VASopeptidase INhibitors", a kind of endogenous brain protein found in snakes.