Abstract
BackgroundMillions of human infections caused by arthropod-borne pathogens are initiated by the feeding of an infected mosquito on a vertebrate. However, interactions between the viruses and the mosquito vector, which facilitates successful infection and transmission of virus to a subsequent vertebrate host, are still not fully understood.FindingHere we describe early chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infectious events in cells derived from one of the most important CHIKV vectors, Aedes albopictus. We demonstrated that CHIKV infection of mosquito cells depended on acidification of the endosome as indicated by significant inhibition following prophylactic treatment with the lysosomotropic drugs chloroquine, ammonium chloride, and monensin, which is consistent with observations in mammalian cells. While all three agents inhibited CHIKV infection in C6/36 cells, ammonium chloride was less toxic to cells than the other agents.ConclusionThe observation of similar mechanisms for inhibition of CHIKV infection in mosquito and mammalian cell lines suggests that conserved entry pathways are utilized by CHIKV for vertebrate and invertebrate cell types.
Highlights
Millions of human infections caused by arthropod-borne pathogens are initiated by the feeding of an infected mosquito on a vertebrate
The mechanism of entry of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) into mosquito cells has not been well studied the pH-dependent nature of CHIKV entry into the cytoplasm from the endosome has been characterized in mammalian cells using chloroquine, ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), or monensin in Vero and HEK293T cell lines [1,2]
Examination of the effect of these drugs on CHIKV infection of C6/36 cells provided a unique opportunity to evaluate this model in a cell line derived from the CHIKV mosquito vector, Aedes albopictus [3]
Summary
Millions of human infections caused by arthropod-borne pathogens are initiated by the feeding of an infected mosquito on a vertebrate. (See figure on previous page.) Figure 1 C6/36 mosquito cell survival and CHIKV infection rates in the presence of lysosomotropic agents. Grey squares represent percentages of survival for C6/36 cells that were not subjected to the treatment of lysosomotropic agents and the infection of CHIKV.
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