TY - JOUR
T1 - Pathogen blocking in wolbachia-infected aedes aegypti is not affected by zika and dengue virus co-infection
AU - Caragata, Eric P.
AU - Rocha, Marcele N.
AU - Pereira, Thiago N.
AU - Mansur, Simone B.
AU - Dutra, Heverton L.C.
AU - Moreira, Luciano A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by FAPEMIG, CNPq, CAPES, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (DECIT/SVS), and a grant to Monash University from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through the Vector-Based Transmission of Control: Discovery Research (VCTR) program of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The funders.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Caragata et al.
PY - 2019/5
Y1 - 2019/5
N2 - Background Wolbachia’s ability to restrict arbovirus transmission makes it a promising tool to combat mosquito-transmitted diseases. Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti are currently being released in locations such as Brazil, which regularly experience concurrent outbreaks of different arboviruses. A. aegypti can become co-infected with, and transmit multiple arboviruses with one bite, which can complicate patient diagnosis and treatment. Methodology/principle findings Using experimental oral infection of A. aegypti and then RT-qPCR, we examined ZIKV/ DENV-1 and ZIKV/DENV-3 co-infection in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti and observed that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes experienced lower prevalence of infection and viral load than wildtype mosquitoes, even with an extra infecting virus. Critically, ZIKV/DENV co-infection had no significant impact on Wolbachia’s ability to reduce viral transmission. Wolbachia infection also strongly altered expression levels of key immune genes Defensin C and Transferrin 1, in a virus-dependent manner. Conclusions/significance Our results suggest that pathogen interference in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti is not adversely affected by ZIKV/DENV co-infection, which suggests that Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti will likely prove suitable for controlling mosquito-borne diseases in environments with complex patterns of arbovirus transmission.
AB - Background Wolbachia’s ability to restrict arbovirus transmission makes it a promising tool to combat mosquito-transmitted diseases. Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti are currently being released in locations such as Brazil, which regularly experience concurrent outbreaks of different arboviruses. A. aegypti can become co-infected with, and transmit multiple arboviruses with one bite, which can complicate patient diagnosis and treatment. Methodology/principle findings Using experimental oral infection of A. aegypti and then RT-qPCR, we examined ZIKV/ DENV-1 and ZIKV/DENV-3 co-infection in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti and observed that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes experienced lower prevalence of infection and viral load than wildtype mosquitoes, even with an extra infecting virus. Critically, ZIKV/DENV co-infection had no significant impact on Wolbachia’s ability to reduce viral transmission. Wolbachia infection also strongly altered expression levels of key immune genes Defensin C and Transferrin 1, in a virus-dependent manner. Conclusions/significance Our results suggest that pathogen interference in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti is not adversely affected by ZIKV/DENV co-infection, which suggests that Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti will likely prove suitable for controlling mosquito-borne diseases in environments with complex patterns of arbovirus transmission.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007443
DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007443
M3 - Article
C2 - 31107912
AN - SCOPUS:85066965694
SN - 1935-2727
VL - 13
JO - PLoS neglected tropical diseases
JF - PLoS neglected tropical diseases
IS - 5
M1 - e0007443
ER -