Disease-carrying mosquitoes have long been a problem for public health and the medical profession. In fact, it was reported that these bugs have the potential to infect people with two viruses even in one bite.
In countries where mosquitoes are present, cases of mosquito-borne diseases that are debilitating and sometimes fatal are usually high. It doesn't help too that two new tropical disease-carrying mosquitoes have now been found in the U.S., particularly in Florida.
This leads to constant research to help find a solution to the many adverse effects brought on by mosquitoes.
One such research suggests the alteration of "human flavor" to appease the appetite of the malaria-carrying bug.
But in the most recent study on disease-carrying mosquitoes, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers discovered genetic engineering as a possible means to end the spread of virus-carrying features in mosquitoes.
Genetic Alterations Make Mosquitoes Dengue Virus-Resistant
The study on the "engineered" mosquito tested the type known as the Aedes aegypti, or the yellow fever mosquito, which is the carrier of the dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses.
George Dimopoulos of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues genetically altered the mosquitoes, for the bugs to contain the proteins called "Dome" and "Hop," which would activate antiviral pathways referred to as JAK/STAT.
The transmission of the virus from host to host is dependent on the mosquito's ability to absorb or resist the virus from the infected host.
The dengue virus's life cycle completes only when it reaches the mosquito's salivary glands; only when a virus completes its life cycle are mosquitoes able to infect another host.
The findings reveal that the induced proteins in the fat body of the bug activate the JAK/STAT, which prevent the dengue virus from infiltrating the system of an Aedes aegypti.
Implications Of Dengue-Resistant Mosquitoes
The findings of the study showed that a JAK/STAT pathway-hyperactive mosquito has an increased resistance to the dengue virus, while there were no significant displays of resistance to the Zika and chikungunya viruses.
The study also proved that increased resistance only applied to the A. aegypti type of mosquito; the altered wild type of mosquitoes did not show any significant effect.
Genetically altered mosquitoes retain the same lifespan of an unaltered mosquito, but are proven to produce fewer eggs than normal.
Mosquitoes that are resistant to the virus and produce fewer eggs could aid in curbing the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. The findings of the study are also supplemental to other ongoing studies to further develop dengue-control strategies.
