School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
EMBO Rep. 2011 Jun;12(6):508-18. doi: 10.1038/embor.2011.84. Epub 2011 May 6.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and filariasis cause an enormous health burden to people living in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Despite years of intense effort to control them, many of these diseases are increasing in prevalence, geographical distribution and severity, and options to control them are limited. The transinfection of mosquitos with the maternally inherited, endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia is a promising new biocontrol approach. Fruit fly Wolbachia strains can invade and sustain themselves in mosquito populations, reduce adult lifespan, affect mosquito reproduction and interfere with pathogen replication. Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been released in areas of Australia in which outbreaks of dengue fever occur, as a prelude to the application of this technology in dengue-endemic areas of south-east Asia.
蚊媒传染病,如疟疾、登革热和丝虫病,给生活在世界热带和亚热带地区的人们带来了巨大的健康负担。尽管多年来人们一直在努力控制这些疾病,但其中许多疾病的流行率、地理分布和严重程度都在增加,而且控制这些疾病的选择有限。通过将母体遗传的内共生细菌沃尔巴克氏体转染给蚊子,是一种很有前途的新的生物控制方法。果蝇沃尔巴克氏体菌株可以入侵并在蚊子种群中维持自己,减少成虫寿命,影响蚊子繁殖并干扰病原体复制。携带沃尔巴克氏体的埃及伊蚊已经在澳大利亚爆发登革热的地区释放,作为在东南亚登革热流行地区应用这项技术的前奏。