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Pathogen blocking in Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti is not affected by Zika and dengue virus co-infection

2019; Public Library of Science; Volume: 13; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pntd.0007443

1935-2735

Eric P. Caragata, Marcele Neves Rocha, Thiago Nunes Pereira, Simone Brutman Mansur, Heverton Leandro Carneiro Dutra, Luciano Andrade Moreira,

Insect and Pesticide Research

Background Wolbachia's ability to restrict arbovirus transmission makes it a promising tool to combat mosquito-transmitted diseases. Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti are currently being released in locations such as Brazil, which regularly experience concurrent outbreaks of different arboviruses. A. aegypti can become co-infected with, and transmit multiple arboviruses with one bite, which can complicate patient diagnosis and treatment. Methodology/principle findings Using experimental oral infection of A. aegypti and then RT-qPCR, we examined ZIKV/DENV-1 and ZIKV/DENV-3 co-infection in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti and observed that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes experienced lower prevalence of infection and viral load than wildtype mosquitoes, even with an extra infecting virus. Critically, ZIKV/DENV co-infection had no significant impact on Wolbachia's ability to reduce viral transmission. Wolbachia infection also strongly altered expression levels of key immune genes Defensin C and Transferrin 1, in a virus-dependent manner. Conclusions/significance Our results suggest that pathogen interference in Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti is not adversely affected by ZIKV/DENV co-infection, which suggests that Wolbachia-infected A. aegypti will likely prove suitable for controlling mosquito-borne diseases in environments with complex patterns of arbovirus transmission.