Abstract
Mosquito-borne diseases are associated with major global health burdens. Aedes spp. and Culex spp. are primarily responsible for the transmission of the most medically important mosquito-borne viruses, including dengue virus, West Nile virus and Zika virus. Despite the burden of these pathogens on human populations, the interactions between viruses and their mosquito hosts remain enigmatic. Viruses enter the midgut of a mosquito following the mosquito’s ingestion of a viremic blood meal. During infection, virus recognition by the mosquito host triggers their antiviral defense mechanism. Of these host defenses, activation of the RNAi pathway is the main antiviral mechanism, leading to the degradation of viral RNA, thereby inhibiting viral replication and promoting viral clearance. However, whilst antiviral host defense mechanisms limit viral replication, the mosquito immune system is unable to effectively clear the virus. As such, these viruses can establish persistent infection with little or no fitness cost to the mosquito vector, ensuring life-long transmission to humans. Understanding of the mosquito innate immune response enables the discovery of novel antivectorial strategies to block human transmission. This review provides an updated and concise summary of recent studies on mosquito antiviral immune responses, which is a key determinant for successful virus transmission. In addition, we will also discuss the factors that may contribute to persistent infection in mosquito hosts. Finally, we will discuss current mosquito transmission-blocking strategies that utilize genetically modified mosquitoes and Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes for resistance to pathogens.
Highlights
Mosquito-borne viruses are a global health priority due to frequent resurgences of major epidemics and unprecedented geographical expansion in the last few decades [1]
The transcription of innate immunity genes encoding for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is highly dependent on several signaling cascade pathways, including the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT), Toll and immune deficiency (Imd) pathways [9, 14, 25, 28, 29]
The exact mechanism of how this signaling pathway limits dengue virus (DENV) replication is not known, this study showed that activation of this signaling pathway induced endoreplication, in which cells undergo many rounds of DNA replication without mitosis to increase dramatically the genomic DNA content in the cells
Summary
Mosquito-borne viruses are a global health priority due to frequent resurgences of major epidemics and unprecedented geographical expansion in the last few decades [1]. Viral infection triggers the activation of innate immunity pathways and leads to the transcription of genes responsible for antiviral responses.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
