Abstract
Dengue virus (DENV) causes millions of human infections globally each year, many of which lead to serious disease; however, specific therapies or effective vaccines are not available for intervention. DENV is maintained in a transmission cycle involving only humans and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. A thorough understanding of the Aedes–DENV interactions that enable viral persistence in the mosquito could lead to identification of targets for interruption of this transmission cycle and control of disease. During the last two decades, research has revealed a great deal about Aedes spp. antiviral defenses, particularly RNA interference (RNAi), the most specific and robust antiviral immune pathways. In this chapter, we review current knowledge of Aedes RNAi, with an emphasis on most recent discoveries in antiviral Piwi-interacting RNA mechanisms. We also discuss applications of RNAi to render transgenic mosquitoes resistant to DENV infection and novel strategies to drive transgenes into populations by super-Mendelian inheritance.
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