Candidate Vectors Research Articles

Molecular detection of a novel Babesia sp. and pathogenic spotted fever group rickettsiae in ticks collected from hedgehogs in Turkey: Haemaphysalis erinacei, a novel candidate vector for the genus Babesia

In this study, a total of 319 ticks were obtained from hedgehogs (Erinaceus concolor). All ticks were pooled into groups and screened by PCR for tick-borne pathogens (TBPs). PCR and sequence analyses identified the presence of a novel Babesia sp. in adult Haemaphysalis erinacei. In addition, the presence of natural transovarial transmission of this novel Babesia sp. was detected in Ha. erinacei. According to the 18S rRNA (nearly complete) and partial rRNA locus (ITS-1/5.8S/ITS-2) phylogeny, it was determined that this new species is located within the Babesia sensu stricto clade and is closely related to Babesia spp. found in carnivores. Furthermore, the presence of three pathogenic spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae was determined in 65.8% of the tick pools: Rickettsia sibirica subsp. mongolitimonae in Hyalomma aegyptium (adult), Hyalomma spp. (larvae), Rhipicephalus turanicus (adult), and Ha. erinacei (adult); Rickettsia aeschlimannii in H. aegyptium (adult); Rickettsia slovaca in Hyalomma spp. (larvae and nymphs) and H. aegyptium (adult). To our knowledge, this is the first report of R. sibirica mongolitimonae in H. aegyptium, Ha. erinacei, and Rh. turanicus, and the first report of R. slovaca in H. aegyptium. In addition, the presence of a single Hemolivia mauritanica haplotype was detected in H. aegyptium adults. Consequently, the presence of a novel Babesia sp. has been identified in a new candidate vector tick species in this study. Additionally, three SFG rickettsiae that cause infections in humans were identified in ticks collected from hedgehogs. Therefore, environmental wildlife monitoring for hedgehogs should be carried out for ticks and tick-borne pathogens in the region. Additionally, studies regarding the reservoir status of hedgehogs for the aforementioned pathogens must be carried out.

Dual-Vector Predictive Torque Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Based on a Candidate Vector Table

In order to reduce the torque ripple of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs), this paper proposes a dual-vector predictive torque control strategy based on a candidate vector table. The main feature of this strategy is that two vectors are acted in a control period to form a vector combination, and the vector combination can be either an effective-zero combination or an effective-effective combination. In the process of establishing the vector combinations, the switching frequency is also taken into account, therefore avoiding a high switching frequency, while effectively reducing the motor torque ripple. The candidate vector table is constructed offline, and three sets of candidate vectors and their duty cycles can be determined by looking up the table. Then the cost function is used to screen the action vectors from the three sets candidate vectors, so the two vectors acted in one control period and their duty cycles can be obtained simultaneously. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified on a 5.2 kW two-level inverter-fed PMSM drive system.

On the Spectral-Efficiency of Low-Complexity and Resolution Hybrid Precoding and Combining Transceivers for mmWave MIMO Systems

Millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems will almost certainly use hybrid precoding to realize beamforming with few numbers of RF chains to reduce energy consumption, but require low complexity technique to improve spectral efficiency. While energy-efficient hybrid analog/digital precoders and combiners designs can subdue the high pathloss inherent in mmWave channels, they assume the use of infinite- (or high-) resolution phase shifters to realize the analog precoder and combiner pair which results in high hardware cost and power consumption. One promising solution is to employ the use of low-resolution phase shifters. In this paper, we first diverse the exploration of multiple candidates of array response vectors, to propose low-complexity hybrid precoder and combiner (LcHPC) design via stage-determined matching pursuit (SdMP) namely, LcHPC-SdMP for pursuing better achievable rate for mmWave MIMO systems. We initially decouple the joint optimization over hybrid precoders and combiners into two separate sparse recovery problems. Specifically, LcHPC-SdMP algorithm revises the identification step of orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) to the selection of multiple “correct” column indices of the matrix of array response vectors, per iteration. Then adds a pruning step -after satisfying a sparsity level condition, to iteratively refine the sparse solution which aids in further accelerating the algorithm, by requiring fewer iterations. We then propose an algorithm which iteratively designs low-resolution (two-bit) hybrid analog-digital precoder and combiner (LrHPC), for pursuing efficiency while maximizing spectral efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed LcHPC-SdMP algorithm performs very close to its full-digital precoding and achieves better spectral efficiency over state-of-the-art algorithms with a substantially reduced number of iteration than the recently proposed schemes. In addition, simulation results also reveal that the achievable rate of the proposed LrHPC algorithm is higher than those of the existing algorithms under consideration.

Optimizing Fast Near Collision Attack on Grain Using Linear Programming

In 2018, an attack named fast-near-collision attack (FNCA) was proposed, which is an improved version of near-collision attack (NCA) on Grain-v1, one of the three hardware-oriented finalists of the eSTREAM project. FNCA is designed as a key recovery attack and takes a divide-and-conquer strategy that needs a merging phase. We propose an improved FNCA where the merging phase is optimized by a linear programming based strategy. It decreases the candidates of the internal state vectors (ISVs) in each step of merging and has a reduction in the overall time complexity. Since the merging phase is vital for a divide-and-conquer strategy, where the most of bits of the full internal state are recovered, other analyses on Grain family with FNCA can get optimized by our method in varying degrees. This paper offers an experiment on a reduced Grain and a theoretical analysis on Grain-v1 to confirm the results. In the case of the reduced Grain of an 80-bit internal state, the time complexity is 2 37.1096 , which has a 27.8% reduction. For Grain-v1, its theoretical time complexity is around 2 73.4 , which is reduced by 79.4% compared with the original one.

AAV-Mediated Gene Delivery to the Mouse Liver.

The liver is an attractive target for gene therapy due to the high incidence of liver disease phenotypes. Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) are currently the most popular gene delivery system for targeting the liver, reflecting high transduction efficiency in vivo and the availability of a toolkit of multiple different capsids with high liver tropism. While AAV vectors confer stable gene transfer in the relatively quiescent adult liver, the predominantly episomal nature of AAV vector genomes results in less stable expression in the growing liver as a consequence of episome clearance during hepatocellular replication. This is an important consideration in experimental design involving young animals, particularly mice, where liver growth is rapid. Given the immense value of murine models for dissecting disease pathophysiology, experimental therapeutics and vector development, this technical manuscript focuses on AAV-mediated transduction of the mouse liver. Xenograft models, in which chimeric mouse-human livers can be established, are also amenable to AAV-mediated gene transfer and have proven to be powerful tools for in vivo selection and characterization of novel human-specific capsids. While yet to be confirmed, such models have the potential to more accurately predict transduction efficiency of clinical candidate vectors than nonhuman primate models.

Molecular Detection of <i>Anaplasma phagocytophilum</i> from Larvae of <i>Haemaphysalis longicornis</i> in Ibaraki, Japan

We collected 1,084 ticks by flagging vegetation in Tsukuba and Moriya (Ibaraki, Japan), where several cases of canine granulocytic anaplasmosis were reported. The DNA of the collected ticks was molecularly examined for infection with the family Anaplasmataceae. Twenty-six positive samples of Anaplasmataceae-specific PCR of partial 16S rRNA gene were subjected to semi-nested PCR, covering the divergent regions, the gene, and sequence analysis. Anaplasma phagocytophilum was detected in 3 pools of Haemaphysalis longicornis larvae and A. bovis from a H. flava male. Sequences of both amplicons had high homologies to those from dogs in our previous studies in Ibaraki. These results suggest that Haemaphysalis ticks are candidate vectors of A. phagocytophilum and A. bovis in Ibaraki, Japan.

Health Evaluation of MVB Based on SVDD and Sample Reduction

Multifunction vehicle bus (MVB) is the most widely used train communication network whose performance degradation and anomaly will heavily affect the train’s safe and stable operation. However, current scheduled maintenance and post-failure maintenance of MVB cannot detect the early anomaly and evaluate the health condition of the network in time. This paper provides a method to detect the anomaly and evaluate the health condition of MVB based on a one-class classification (OCC) algorithm called density-based sample reduction for support vector data description (DBSRSVDD). First, network features are extracted from physical layer waveform parameters. In order to reduce the computational complexity of SVDD, a sample reduction operation is conducted to screen out the edge samples as support vector candidates. Then, the SVDD models representing the normal patterns of a single MVB node are trained based on the support vector candidates. Performance degradation of the node is quantified by the distance between the tested sample and the trained hyper sphere. The whole network’s health condition is the linear weighted sum of the nodes’ scores based on their bandwidth occupancy. The experimental results show that the proposed method can detect the anomaly and degradation of MVB successfully, improve accuracy, and reduce training time compared with the existing methods.

αvβ3 Integrin Is Required for Efficient Infection of Epithelial Cells with Human Adenovirus Type 26.

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are being explored as vectors for gene transfer and vaccination. Human adenovirus type 26 (HAdV26), which belongs to the largest subgroup of adenoviruses, species D, has a short fiber and a so-far-unknown natural tropism. Due to its low seroprevalence, HAdV26 has been considered a promising vector for the development of vaccines. Despite the fact that the in vivo safety and immunogenicity of HAdV26 have been extensively studied, the basic biology of the virus with regard to receptor use, cell attachment, internalization, and intracellular trafficking is poorly understood. In this work, we investigated the roles of the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR), CD46, and αv integrins in HAdV26 infection of human epithelial cell lines. By performing different gain- and loss-of-function studies, we found that αvβ3 integrin is required for efficient infection of epithelial cells by HAdV26, while CAR and CD46 did not increase the transduction efficiency of HAdV26. By studying intracellular trafficking of fluorescently labeled HAdV26 in A549 cells and A549-derived cell clones with stably increased expression of αvβ3 integrin, we observed that HAdV26 colocalizes with αvβ3 integrin and that increased αvβ3 integrin enhances internalization of HAdV26. Thus, we conclude that HAdV26 uses αvβ3 integrin as a receptor for infecting epithelial cells. These results give us new insight into the HAdV26 infection pathway and will be helpful in further defining HAdV-based vector manufacturing and vaccination strategies.IMPORTANCE Adenovirus-based vectors are used today for gene transfer and vaccination. HAdV26 has emerged as a promising candidate vector for development of vaccines due to its relatively low seroprevalence and its ability to induce potent immune responses against inserted transgenes. However, data regarding the basic biology of the virus, like receptor usage or intracellular trafficking, are limited. In this work, we found that efficient infection of human epithelial cell lines by HAdV26 requires the expression of the αvβ3 integrin. By studying intracellular trafficking of fluorescently labeled HAdV26 in a cell clone with stably increased expression of αvβ3 integrin, we observed that HAdV26 colocalizes with αvβ3 integrin and confirmed that αvβ3 integrin expression facilitates efficient HAdV26 internalization. These results will allow further improvement of HAdV26-based vectors for gene transfer and vaccination.

Decoupled Vector Space Decomposition Based Space Vector Modulation for Dual Three-Phase Three-Level Motor Drives

In this paper, a novel space vector modulation (SVM) strategy is proposed and designed for dual three-phase three-level motor drives based on vector space decomposition (VSD), which could be applied for high-power and high-reliability applications. The key of the proposed method is to design two decoupled groups of voltage vector candidates for synthesis on α − β subspace and x − y subspace, respectively. The two decoupled groups of voltage vectors will synthesize respective voltage references on α − β subspace and x − y subspace, while having no impact on each other. The redundant small voltage vectors and zero-sequence voltage vectors are utilized to mitigate voltage oscillation in midpoint of dc link and suppress zero-sequence current component for dual three-phase windings with a common neutral. For comparison, another VSD-SVM strategy is designed based on traditional solution, which cannot offer closed-loop control on x − y subspace. Both simulation and experiments have been given to verify that the proposed decoupled VSD-SVM can suppress harmonic components on x − y subspace besides tracking torque components on α − β subspace. Furthermore, the harmonic performance of the proposed decoupled VSD-SVM has been compared with the traditional VSD-SVM strategy and the carrier disposition based pulsewidth modulation.

Efficient H.264-to-HEVC Transcoding Based on Motion Propagation and Post-Order Traversal of Coding Tree Units

In this paper, we propose a fast H.264-to-HEVC transcoder composed of a motion propagation algorithm and a fast mode decision framework. The motion propagation algorithm creates a motion vector candidate list at the coding tree unit (CTU) level and, thereafter, selects the best candidate at the prediction unit level. This method eliminates computational redundancy by pre-computing the prediction error of each candidate at the CTU level and reusing the information for various partition sizes. The fast mode decision framework is based on a post-order traversal of the CTU and includes several mode reduction techniques. In particular, the framework permits the early termination of the rate distortion cost computation, a highly complex task, when a mode is unpromising. Moreover, a novel method exploits the data created by the motion propagation algorithm to determine whether a coding unit must be split. This allows the pruning of unpromising sub-partitions. Compared with a cascaded pixel-domain transcoding approach, the experimental results show that the proposed solution using one reference frame is on average 8.5 times faster, for an average Bjøntegaard delta-rate (BD-Rate) of 2.63%. For a configuration with four reference frames, the average speed-up is 11.77 times and the average BD-Rate is 3.82%.

Cost-Based Search Ordering for Rate-Constrained Motion Estimation Applied to HEVC

In the context of motion estimation for video coding, combining a successive elimination algorithm (SEA) with a motion estimation algorithm reduces the number of computed cost functions without impact on rate or distortion. The SEAs use the sum of absolute differences to eliminate motion vector candidates in the search area that cannot improve the current minimum. The novelty in this paper is that instead of relying on a static geometric pattern (i.e., like a spiral), we proposed a dynamic algorithm that creates a cost-based search orderings. A dynamic cost-based search ordering not only improves elimination but also allows for early termination which removes, on average, 61% of the block-matching loop iterations performed by the rate-constrained successive elimination algorithm (RCSEA). Our experiments show that the proposed solution is 5 times faster than the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) HM encoder software in full search mode with a 0.02% impact on BD-Rate. This is twice the speed of the HEVC HM software encoder using only the RCSEA.

First-time isolation and quantification of Basidiobolus spp. from reptile faeces in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) using selective media.

Members of the genus Basidiobolus are potentially pathogenic fungi, known to cause mycoses in tropical and subtropical countries. Basidiobolus spp. can be associated with animals, and reptiles and amphibians are candidate vectors for the distribution of this fungus. The presence of Basidiobolus spp. was described for different reptiles in several African countries, although not for South Africa. In addition, quantitative data are scarce. The aim of this study was to analyse faeces of selected South African reptiles for the presence and quantity of "viable Basidiobolus units." Faecal samples of gecko and agama lizards were collected and analysed using spread plating, with confirmation by PCR. The addition of dichloran and benomyl to standard fungal media improved the selectivity and allowed quantification of Basidiobolus spp. in reptile faeces. The amount of Basidiobolus spp. varied between 300 and 1.4×106 CFU per gram of pooled gecko faeces, which mostly corresponds to >1000CFU per outside dropping and <100CFU per inside dropping. About 60% of analysed agama faeces carried Basidiobolus spp., ranging from 150 to 1.2×105 CFU per dropping. Our results show for the first time that faeces of South African reptiles frequently carry Basidiobolus spp., confirming that they can contribute to the distribution of this fungus.

Construction of Bovine Serum Albumin/AIE-Based Quaternary Complexes for Efficient Gene Transfection.

High transfection efficiency and superior cell imaging are required for cationic polymers-based gene delivery system to afford high therapeutic effect but its high toxicity and unstable cell imaging are easily ignored. In this study, cationic amino poly(glycerol methacrylate) derivative (PGMA-EDA) is used to incorporate bovine serum albumin (BSA) and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecular (tetraphenylethylene derivatives, TPE) as an efficient carrier for gene transfection and intracellular imaging. The obtained polymer/pDNA-TPE/BSA (PDTB) quaternary nanoparticles (NPs) not only exhibit efficient gene transfection but also show excellent biocompatibility. After inclusion of TPE/BSA (TB) NPs, BSA promoted dissociation of the complexes upon being protonated and the lipophilic TPE-reduced endosomal membrane stability, which enhanced endosomal escape of pDNA payload, finally resulting in an excellent gene transfection. On the other hand, less positive surface charge of PDTB NPs than that of the binary PD complexes, as well as the addition of biocompatible BSA, both factors contribute to the improved cell viability. Moreover, the AIE feature of TPE compared to aggregation-caused quenching character of conventional fluorophores enables the complex with stably tracking the delivery of pDNA into cancer cells. Therefore, the newly developed PDTB complexes may be a promising candidate vector for traceable, safe, and effective gene delivery.

Motion and disparity vectors early determination for texture video in 3D-HEVC

3D-HEVC is the state-of-the-art video coding standard for 3D video, and it is an extension of high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard. Besides the original HEVC coding tools, 3D-HEVC adopts some advanced coding tools, such as disparity vector (DV), inter-view prediction and inter-component prediction. However, these advanced tools lead to extremely high encoding complexity at the same time, thus it cannot be well applied in real-time multimedia systems. In this paper, we propose a motion and disparity vectors early determination algorithm to reduce 3D-HEVC computational complexity. First, based on the statistical analyses, the spatial and temporal motion vector (MV) candidates are adaptively reduced for the prediction unit (PU) with the Merge mode. Then, for the PU with the Inter mode, the combination of spatial and temporal candidates is used to early determine the final MV. Finally, an adaptive optimization algorithm is adopted to select the valid inter-view disparity vectors (DV) candidates. Moreover, if the difference between candidate vectors is within a conditional range, current PU will be encoded with the Merge mode to skip unnecessary coding process. Experimental results show that for the texture views encoding, the proposed algorithm achieves an average of 33.03% encoding time saving, and an average of 0.47% BD-Rate increases.

Physical positioning markedly enhances brain transduction after intrathecal AAV9 infusion.

Several neurological disorders may benefit from gene therapy. However, even when using the lead vector candidate for intrathecal administration, adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9), the strength and distribution of gene transfer to the brain are inconsistent. On the basis of preliminary observations that standard intrathecal AAV9 infusions predominantly drive reporter gene expression in brain regions where gravity might cause cerebrospinal fluid to settle, we tested the hypothesis that counteracting vector "settling" through animal positioning would enhance vector delivery to the brain. When rats are either inverted in the Trendelenburg position or continuously rotated after intrathecal AAV9 infusion, we find (i) a significant 15-fold increase in the number of transduced neurons, (ii) a marked increase in gene delivery to cortical regions, and (iii) superior animal-to-animal consistency of gene expression. Entorhinal, prefrontal, frontal, parietal, hippocampal, limbic, and basal forebrain neurons are extensively transduced: 95% of transduced cells are neurons, and greater than 70% are excitatory. These findings provide a novel and simple method for broad gene delivery to the cortex and are of substantial relevance to translational programs for neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.

PO515 For Life After Myocardial Infarction: 12 Months Results of Nurse Assisted Secondary Prevention Intervention On STEMI Patients Clinical Outcomes

Liver metabolism disorders are attractive targets for gene therapy, because low vector doses can reverse the buildup of toxic metabolites in the blood. Crigler-Najjar syndrome is an inherited disorder of bilirubin metabolism that is caused by the absence of uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl transferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) activity. This syndrome is characterized by hyperbilirubinemia and jaundice. Unfortunately, current phototherapy treatment is not effective long term. We intravenously injected phototherapy-rescued adult UGT1 knockout mice with 2.5 × 1010–2.5 × 1013 genome copies (GC)/kg of a clinical candidate vector, AAV8.TBG.hUGT1A1co, to study the treatment of disease compared to vehicle-only control mice. There were no apparent vector-related laboratory or clinical sequelae; the only abnormalities in clinical pathology were elevations in liver transaminases, primarily in male mice at the highest vector dose. Minimal to mild histopathological findings were present in control and vector-administered male mice. At vector doses greater than 2.5 × 1011 GC/kg, we observed a reversal of total bilirubin levels to wild-type levels. Based on a significant reduction in serum total bilirubin levels, we determined the minimally effective dose in this mouse model of Crigler-Najjar syndrome to be 2.5 × 1011 GC/kg.

Support vector candidates selection via Delaunay graph and convex-hull for large and high-dimensional datasets

We propose a method to pre-select support vector (SV) candidates for training support vector machines (SVM) with a large-scale dataset. The technique creates a support vector candidates set to feed the SVM training phase, where this set is built by rescaling the dataset to three dimensions, if necessary, and creating a Delaunay Graph and a convex-hull (CH) for each class. The SV candidates set is formed by picking the points from all CHs, and its neighbors from the Delaunay graph, even in a reduced dimension. By testing the technique in four datasets with different size and feature number, we demonstrate that the proposed method accelerates SVM training process without degrading accuracy proportionally to the difference between original dataset and SV candidates set dimensions.

Predictive Torque Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Using Flux Vector

In this paper, an improved predictive torque control without weighting factor is proposed for a voltage source inverter-permanent magnet synchronous motor drive system, which possesses good control performance of torque and stator flux. By investigating the relationship among torque, the reference stator flux amplitude, and the phase angle of the stator flux, the reference stator flux vector is constructed. Then, the reference voltage vector is calculated by the reference stator flux vector based on the delay compensation and the deadbeat control. The extended control set is designed and two generalized base vectors that require further screening are determined based on the position of the reference voltage vector to improve the calculation efficiency. And the duty ratios used for the generalized base vectors are calculated, according to the geometric relations between the generalized base vectors and the reference voltage vector. Finally, by the duty cycle control between two generalized base vectors and between each generalized base vector and zero vector, the candidate vectors are gained and substituted into the cost function only with the flux vector error term. Experiment tests were carried out and the results validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In vitro cellular localization and efficient accumulation of fluorescently tagged biomaterials from monodispersed chitosan nanoparticles for elucidation of controlled release pathways for drug delivery systems.

BackgroundInefficient cellular delivery and poor intracellular accumulation are major drawbacks towards achieving favorable therapeutic responses from many therapeutic drugs and biomolecules. To tackle this issue, nanoparticle-mediated delivery vectors have been aptly explored as a promising delivery strategy capable of enhancing the cellular localization of biomolecules and improve their therapeutic efficacies. However, the dynamics of intracellular biomolecule release and accumulation from such nanoparticle systems has currently remained scarcely studied.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to utilize a chitosan-based nanoparticle system as the delivery carrier for glutamic acid, a model for encapsulated biomolecules to visualize the in vitro release and accumulation of the encapsulated glutamic acid from chitosan nanoparticle (CNP) systems.MethodsCNP was synthesized via ionic gelation routes utilizing tripolyphosphate (TPP) as a cross-linker. In order to track glutamic acid release, the glutamic acid was fluorescently-labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate prior encapsulation into CNP.ResultsLight Scattering data concluded the successful formation of small-sized and mono-dispersed CNP at a specific volume ratio of chitosan to TPP. Encapsulation of glutamic acid as a model cargo into CNP led to an increase in particle size to >100 nm. The synthesized CNP exhibited spherical shape under Electron Microscopy. The formation of CNP was reflected by the reduction in free amine groups of chitosan following ionic crosslinking reactions. The encapsulation of glutamic acid was further confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis. Cell viability assay showed 70% cell viability at the maximum concentration of 0.5 mg/mL CS and 0.7 mg/mL TPP used, indicating the low inherent toxicity property of this system. In vitro release study using fluorescently-tagged glutamic acids demonstrated the release and accumulation of the encapsulated glutamic acids at 6 hours post treatment. A significant accumulation was observed at 24 hours and 48 hours later. Flow cytometry data demonstrated a gradual increase in intracellular fluorescence signal from 30 minutes to 48 hours post treatment with fluorescently-labeled glutamic acids encapsulated CNP.ConclusionThese results therefore suggested the potential of CNP system towards enhancing the intracellular delivery and release of the encapsulated glutamic acids. This CNP system thus may serves as a potential candidate vector capable to improve the therapeutic efficacy for drugs and biomolecules in medical as well as pharmaceutical applications through the enhanced intracellular release and accumulation of the encapsulated cargo.

Colonized Sabethes cyaneus, a Sylvatic New World Mosquito Species, Shows a Low Vector Competence for Zika Virus Relative to Aedes aegypti.

The introduction of Zika virus (ZIKV) to the Americas raised concern that the virus would spill back from human transmission, perpetuated by Aedes aegypti, into a sylvatic cycle maintained in wildlife and forest-living mosquitoes. In the Americas, Sabethes species are vectors of sylvatic yellow fever virus (YFV) and are therefore candidate vectors of a sylvatic ZIKV cycle. To test the potential of Sabethes cyaneus to transmit ZIKV, Sa. cyaneus and Ae. aegypti were fed on A129 mice one or two days post-infection (dpi) with a ZIKV isolate from Mexico. Sa. cyaneus were sampled at 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, and 21 days post-feeding (dpf) and Ae. aegypti were sampled at 14 and 21 dpf. ZIKV was quantified in mosquito bodies, legs, and saliva to measure infection, dissemination, and potential transmission, respectively. Of 69 Sa. cyaneus that fed, ZIKV was detected in only one, in all body compartments, at 21 dpf. In contrast, at 14 dpf 100% of 20 Ae. aegypti that fed on mice at 2 dpi were infected and 70% had virus in saliva. These data demonstrate that Sa. cyaneus is a competent vector for ZIKV, albeit much less competent than Ae. aegypti.