Institute for Medical Research, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Jalan Pahang 50588, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
University of Melbourne, Bio21 Institute and the School of BioSciences, 30 Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia.
Curr Biol. 2019 Dec 16;29(24):4241-4248.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.007. Epub 2019 Nov 21.
Dengue has enormous health impacts globally. A novel approach to decrease dengue incidence involves the introduction of Wolbachia endosymbionts that block dengue virus transmission into populations of the primary vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti. The wMel Wolbachia strain has previously been trialed in open releases of Ae. aegypti; however, the wAlbB strain has been shown to maintain higher density than wMel at high larval rearing temperatures. Releases of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes carrying wAlbB were carried out in 6 diverse sites in greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with high endemic dengue transmission. The strain was successfully established and maintained at very high population frequency at some sites or persisted with additional releases following fluctuations at other sites. Based on passive case monitoring, reduced human dengue incidence was observed in the release sites when compared to control sites. The wAlbB strain of Wolbachia provides a promising option as a tool for dengue control, particularly in very hot climates.
登革热在全球范围内造成了巨大的健康影响。一种降低登革热发病率的新方法是将能够阻断登革热病毒传播的沃尔巴克氏体共生菌引入到主要传播媒介埃及伊蚊种群中。此前，已经在野外释放的埃及伊蚊中对 wMel 沃尔巴克氏体菌株进行了试验；然而，研究表明，wAlbB 菌株在高温幼虫饲养条件下比 wMel 菌株保持更高的密度。携带 wAlbB 的埃及伊蚊在马来西亚吉隆坡大都市区的 6 个不同地点进行了释放，这些地区登革热的地方性传播率很高。该菌株在一些地点成功建立并维持了非常高的种群频率，而在其他地点，在出现波动后，通过额外的释放得以维持。基于被动病例监测，与对照点相比，释放点的人类登革热发病率有所降低。wAlbB 型沃尔巴克氏体为登革热控制提供了一种很有前途的工具，特别是在非常炎热的气候条件下。
