Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 8;10(1):16812. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73819-1.
Arboviral infections such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya are fast spreading diseases that pose significant health problems globally. In order to control these infections, an intracellular bacterium called Wolbachia has been introduced into wild-type mosquito populations in the hopes of replacing the vector transmitting agent, Aedes aegypti with one that is incapable of transmission. In this study, we developed a Wolbachia transmission model for the novel wAu strain which possesses several favourable traits (e.g., enhanced viral blockage and maintenance at higher temperature) but not cyctoplasmic incompatibility (CI)-when a Wolbachia-infected male mosquito mates with an uninfected female mosquito, producing no viable offspring. This model describes the competitive dynamics between wAu-Wolbachia-infected and uninfected mosquitoes and the role of imperfect maternal transmission. By analysing the system via computing the basic reproduction number(s) and stability properties, the potential of the wAu strain as a viable strategy to control arboviral infections is established. The results of this work show that enhanced maintenance of Wolbachia infection at higher temperatures can overcome the lack of CI induction to support wAu-Wolbachia infected mosquito invasion. This study will support future arboviral control programs, that rely on the introduction of new Wolbachia variants.
虫媒病毒感染，如登革热、寨卡和基孔肯雅热，是快速传播的疾病，在全球范围内构成重大健康问题。为了控制这些感染，一种名为沃尔巴克氏体的胞内细菌已被引入野生型蚊子种群，希望用一种不能传播的媒介来替代传播媒介埃及伊蚊。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种新型 wAu 菌株的沃尔巴克氏体传播模型，该菌株具有多种有利特性（例如，增强病毒阻断和在较高温度下维持），但不具有细胞质不相容性（CI）——当感染沃尔巴克氏体的雄性蚊子与未感染的雌性蚊子交配时，不会产生有活力的后代。该模型描述了 wAu-沃尔巴克氏体感染和未感染蚊子之间的竞争动态以及不完全母系传播的作用。通过计算基本繁殖数和稳定性特性来分析该系统，确定了 wAu 菌株作为控制虫媒病毒感染的可行策略的潜力。这项工作的结果表明，在较高温度下增强沃尔巴克氏体感染的维持可以克服缺乏 CI 诱导的问题，从而支持 wAu-沃尔巴克氏体感染蚊子的入侵。本研究将支持未来依赖引入新的沃尔巴克氏体变体的虫媒病毒控制计划。
