Pathogen blocking in Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti is not affected by Zika and dengue virus co-infection.

• Main Authors: Eric P Caragata (Author), Marcele N Rocha (Author), Thiago N Pereira (Author), Simone B Mansur (Author), Heverton L C Dutra (Author), Luciano A Moreira (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2019-05-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

<h4>Background</h4>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.<h4>Methodology/principle findings</h4>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.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>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.

Item Description

1935-2727
1935-2735
10.1371/journal.pntd.0007443