Liu Feng, Coutinho-Abreu Iliano V, Raban Robyn, Nguyen Tam Thuy Dan, Dimas Alejandra R, Merriman Joseph A, Akbari Omar S
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Sarafan ChEM-H, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
PNAS Nexus. 2024 Jul 30;3(7):pgae267. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae267. eCollection 2024 Jul.
The skin microbiome plays a pivotal role in the production of attractive cues detected by mosquitoes. Here, we leveraged recent advances in genetic engineering to significantly reduce the production of L-(+)-lactic acid as a strategy to reduce mosquito attraction to the highly prominent skin commensals and Engraftment of these engineered bacteria onto the skin of mice reduced mosquito attraction and feeding for up to 11 uninterrupted days, which is considerably longer than the several hours of protection conferred by the leading chemical repellent N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide. Taken together, our findings demonstrate engineering the skin microbiome to reduce attractive volatiles represents an innovative untapped strategy to reduce vector attraction, preventing bites, and pathogen transmission. These findings set the stage for new classes of long-lasting microbiome-based repellent products.
皮肤微生物群在蚊子检测到的吸引信号产生过程中起着关键作用。在此，我们利用基因工程的最新进展，大幅减少L-(+)-乳酸的产生，以此作为一种策略来减少蚊子对皮肤常见微生物的高度趋化性。将这些经过基因工程改造的细菌移植到小鼠皮肤上，可减少蚊子的趋化性和叮咬行为，长达11天不间断，这比领先的化学驱避剂N,N-二乙基间甲苯甲酰胺所提供的几个小时的防护时间长得多。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，通过改造皮肤微生物群来减少吸引性挥发物，是一种尚未开发的创新策略，可减少病媒趋化性、防止叮咬和病原体传播。这些发现为新型长效的基于微生物群的驱避产品奠定了基础。
