Zika virus or dengue virus has been shown to entice mosquitoes by changing the skin odor of infected animal hosts.
When the mosquitoes gathered in this way suck the infected blood of the host and bite other animals, the virus spreads, thus using an effective spread strategy.
According to the University of Connecticut in the US, an international research team, including immunologist Dr. Wang Penghwa, participated in the university, and published the results of the study that Zika and dengue viruses attract mosquitoes by changing the host’s body odor in the biological journal ‘Cell’.
While malaria and general inflammation can alter body odor in humans, the researchers took the idea that Zika and dengue viruses might do the same.
First, they tested whether mosquitoes preferred mice infected with Zika or dengue viruses. A study of mosquito responses in healthy mice and dengue-infected mice in one place showed that mice with dengue were more likely to attack.
The research team collected odor molecules from the skins of infected and healthy mice, sorted out molecules that infected mice had in common, buried them one by one on the hands of healthy mice and volunteers, and analyzed the responses of mosquitoes.
The results showed that a scent-emitting molecule called acetophenone was particularly attracting mosquitoes. The scent of skin taken from dengue patients was also found to attract more mosquitoes and produce more acetophenone molecules.
Acetophenone is produced by ‘Bacillus bacteria’, rod-shaped bacteria on the skin of mice and humans. However, if infected with dengue or Zika virus, they did not make much antibacterial peptides, so it was confirmed through mice that Bacillus bacteria rapidly increased.
“These viruses attempt to spread by manipulating the microbes on the host’s skin to attract mosquitoes,” Wang said.
Using this strategy of mosquito virus, the research team injected ‘isotretinoin’, a vitamin A extract known to increase the production of antibacterial peptides in the skin, into dengue-infected mice. said there was
Dr. Wang said that in the future, he will check whether the isotretinoin prescription is effective in human patients in real situations.
Reporter Yoo-kyung Jo, Donga.com polaris27@donga.com