Dodson Brittany L, Hughes Grant L, Paul Oluwatobi, Matacchiero Amy C, Kramer Laura D, Rasgon Jason L
Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2014 Jul 10;8(7):e2965. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002965. eCollection 2014 Jul.
Novel strategies are required to control mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit. One attractive approach involves maternally inherited endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria. After artificial infection with Wolbachia, many mosquitoes become refractory to infection and transmission of diverse pathogens. We evaluated the effects of Wolbachia (wAlbB strain) on infection, dissemination and transmission of West Nile virus (WNV) in the naturally uninfected mosquito Culex tarsalis, which is an important WNV vector in North America. After inoculation into adult female mosquitoes, Wolbachia reached high titers and disseminated widely to numerous tissues including the head, thoracic flight muscles, fat body and ovarian follicles. Contrary to other systems, Wolbachia did not inhibit WNV in this mosquito. Rather, WNV infection rate was significantly higher in Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes compared to controls. Quantitative PCR of selected innate immune genes indicated that REL1 (the activator of the antiviral Toll immune pathway) was down regulated in Wolbachia-infected relative to control mosquitoes. This is the first observation of Wolbachia-induced enhancement of a human pathogen in mosquitoes, suggesting that caution should be applied before releasing Wolbachia-infected insects as part of a vector-borne disease control program.
需要新的策略来控制蚊子及其传播的病原体。一种有吸引力的方法涉及母系遗传的内共生沃尔巴克氏体细菌。在人工感染沃尔巴克氏体后，许多蚊子对多种病原体的感染和传播变得具有抗性。我们评估了沃尔巴克氏体（wAlbB菌株）对西尼罗河病毒（WNV）在自然未感染的北美重要WNV媒介致倦库蚊中的感染、传播和扩散的影响。将沃尔巴克氏体接种到成年雌蚊体内后，其滴度达到很高水平，并广泛扩散到包括头部、胸部飞行肌、脂肪体和卵巢滤泡在内的许多组织。与其他系统不同的是，沃尔巴克氏体在这种蚊子中并不抑制WNV。相反，与对照组相比，感染沃尔巴克氏体的蚊子中WNV感染率显著更高。对选定的先天免疫基因进行定量PCR分析表明，与对照蚊子相比，感染沃尔巴克氏体的蚊子中REL1（抗病毒Toll免疫途径的激活剂）表达下调。这是首次观察到沃尔巴克氏体在蚊子中增强人类病原体感染，这表明在将感染沃尔巴克氏体的昆虫作为病媒传播疾病控制计划的一部分释放之前应谨慎行事。
