Abstract
Dengue is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes and caused by four viral serotypes (DENV 1-4). This mosquito-borne disease is a major public health problem and a threat to more than 2.5 billion people, who live in endemic areas. Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of dengue in the Americas. The present study shows the susceptibility of a colony strain of A. aegypti to Dengue 2 virus (DENV-2). A. aegypti females from a laboratory colony were infected with DENV-2 using a membrane feeding technique. The engorged females were dissected on different days (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15). The midguts, ovaries, carcasses and heads were separated. The samples were fixed and immunolabeled with anti-DENV-2 antibody to be analyzed by laser confocal microscopy (LCM). Infected mosquitoes from the 15th day had their heads and bodies dissected, separated and analyzed by RT-PCR with specific primers. Immunolabeling of the midguts and ovaries showed the presence of DENV-2 in the mosquitoes dissected from the third day until the last day of the experiment. The RT-PCR reactions of the heads and the bodies confirmed the mosquito infection with DENV-2. These results showed that the methodology used for the artificial infection with dengue virus was successful and demonstrated that our colonized A. aegypti mosquitoes were susceptible to artificial dengue infection. Future studies are in progress to better understand the process of invasion by dengue virus in Aedes mosquito. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17525/vrr.v11i1-2.5
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