Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Institute of pathogenic organisms, Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China.
Nat Commun. 2017 Nov 2;8(1):1262. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01244-6.
Mosquitoes are hematophagous insects that carry-on and transmit many human viruses. However, little information is available regarding the common mechanisms underlying the infection of mosquitoes by these viruses. In this study, we reveal that the hematophagous nature of mosquitoes contributes to arboviral infection after a blood meal, which suppresses antiviral innate immunity by activating the GABAergic pathway. dsRNA-mediated interruption of the GABA signaling and blockage of the GABA receptor by the specific inhibitors both significantly impaired arbovirus replication. Consistently, inoculation of GABA enhanced arboviral infection, indicating that GABA signaling facilitates the arboviral infection of mosquitoes. The ingestion of blood by mosquitoes resulted in robust GABA production from glutamic acid derived from blood protein digestion. The oral introduction of glutamic acid increased virus acquisition by mosquitoes via activation of the GABAergic system. Our study reveals that blood meals enhance arbovirus replication in mosquitoes through activation of the GABAergic system.
蚊子是吸血昆虫，可携带并传播许多人类病毒。然而，关于蚊子感染这些病毒的常见机制的信息却很少。在这项研究中，我们揭示了蚊子的吸血特性有助于在饱餐一顿血后感染虫媒病毒，它通过激活 GABA 能途径来抑制抗病毒先天免疫。dsRNA 介导的 GABA 信号中断和特异性抑制剂阻断 GABA 受体都显著损害了虫媒病毒的复制。一致地，GABA 的接种增强了虫媒病毒的感染，表明 GABA 信号促进了蚊子感染虫媒病毒。蚊子吸血会导致源自血蛋白消化的谷氨酸产生大量 GABA。通过激活 GABA 能系统，向蚊子口腔引入谷氨酸会增加它们对病毒的获取。我们的研究表明，通过激活 GABA 能系统，蚊子的血餐会增强虫媒病毒的复制。
