Keywords: pathogen blocking

Procedures for the Detection of Wolbachia-Conferred Antiviral Protection in Drosophila melanogaster

Chrostek, E.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
Spread of Wolbachia infections in host populations may be enhanced by Wolbachia-conferred protection from viral pathogens. Wolbachia-infected Drosophila melanogaster survive the pathogenic effects of positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus infections at a higher rate than the ...
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Aedes aegypti microbiome composition covaries with the density of Wolbachia infection

Jane Pascar, Henry Middleton & Steve Dorus,  Microbiome,  11. 2023.
Wolbachia is a widespread bacterial endosymbiont that can inhibit vector competency when stably transinfected into the mosquito, Aedes aegypti, a primary vector of the dengue virus (DENV) and other arboviruses. Although a complete mechanistic understanding of pathogen blocking is ...
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Symbiotic Wolbachia in mosquitoes and its role in reducing the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases: updates and prospects

A. Minwuyelet, G. P. Petronio, D. Yewhalaw, A. Sciarretta, I. Magnifico, D. Nicolosi, R. Di Marco and G. Atenafu,  Frontiers in Microbiology,  14. 2023.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, Zika fever, and filariasis have the greatest health and economic impact. These mosquito-borne diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Due to the ...
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Biotechnological Potential of Microorganisms for Mosquito Population Control and Reduction in Vector Competence

R. D. Katak, A. M. Cintra, B. C. Burini, O. Marinotti, J. A. Souza-Neto and E. M. Rocha,  Insects,  14. 2023.
Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that cause human diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika fever, and filariasis. Biotechnological approaches using microorganisms have a significant potential to control mosquito populations and reduce their vector ...
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Symbiotic Wolbachia in mosquitoes and its role in reducing the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases: updates and prospects

Awoke Minwuyelet, Giulio Petronio Petronio, Delenasaw Yewhalaw, Andrea Sciarretta, Irene Magnifico, Daria Nicolosi, Roberto Di Marco, Getnet Atenafu,,  Frontiers in Microbiology,  14. 2023.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, Zika fever, and filariasis have the greatest health and economic impact. These mosquito-borne diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Due to the ...
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Wolbachia enhances the survival ofDrosophila infected with fungal pathogens

J. Perlmutter, I., A. Atadurdyyeva, M. Schedl, E. and R. Unckless, L. ,  bioRxiv,  2023.09.30.560320. 2023.
Wolbachia bacteria of arthropods are at the forefront of basic and translational research on multipartite host-symbiont-pathogen interactions. These microbes are vertically inherited from mother to offspring via the cytoplasm. They are the most widespread endosymbionts on the ...
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Wolbachia interferes with Zika virus replication by hijacking cholesterol metabolism in mosquito cells

B. Edwards, E. A.-O. X. Ghedin and D. A.-O. Voronin,  Microbiology Spectrum,  2023.
Zika virus is a member of the arbovirus Flaviviridae family transmitted by Aedes mosquitos and it is associated with microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers. Wolbachia is an intracellular gram-negative alpha-proteobacteria that infects many species of arthropods, ...
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Wolbachia-mediated resistance to Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti is dominated by diverse transcriptional regulation and weak evolutionary pressures

E. C. Boehm, A. S. Jaeger, H. J. Ries, D. Castañeda, A. M. Weiler, C. C. Valencia, J. Weger-Lucarelli, G. D. Ebel, S. L. O’Connor, T. C. Friedrich, M. Zamanian and M. T. Aliota,  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  17:e0011674. 2023.
A promising candidate for arbovirus control and prevention relies on replacing arbovirus-susceptible Aedes aegypti populations with mosquitoes that have been colonized by the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia and thus have a reduced capacity to transmit arboviruses. This reduced ...
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Using Wolbachia to control rice planthopper populations: progress and challenges

Y. Guo, J. Shao, Y. Wu and Y. Li,  Frontiers in Microbiology,  14. 2023.
Wolbachia have been developed as a tool for protecting humans from mosquito populations and mosquito-borne diseases. The success of using Wolbachia relies on the facts that Wolbachia are maternally transmitted and that Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility provides a ...
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Mimicking superinfection exclusion disrupts alphavirus infection and transmission in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti

Reitmayer, Christine M. Levitt, Emily Basu, Sanjay Atkinson, Barry Fragkoudis, Rennos Merits, Andres Lumley, Sarah Larner, Will Diaz, Adriana V. Rooney, Sara Thomas, Callum J. E. von Wyschetzki, Katharina Rausalu, Kai Alphey, Luk,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  120:e2303080120. 2023.
Multiple viruses, including pathogenic viruses, bacteriophages, and even plant viruses, cause a phenomenon termed superinfection exclusion whereby a currently infected cell is resistant to secondary infection by the same or a closely related virus. In alphaviruses, this process ...
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Quantifying the impact of Wolbachia releases on dengue infection in Townsville, Australia

Ogunlade, S. T. Adekunle, A. I. Meehan, M. T. McBryde, E. S.,  Scientific Reports,  13:14932. 2023.
From October 2014 to February 2019, local authorities in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia continually introduced Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to control seasonal outbreaks of dengue infection. In this study, we develop a mathematical modelling framework to estimate the ...
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Jamestown Canyon virus is transmissible by Aedes aegypti and is only moderately blocked by Wolbachia co-infection

M. J. Lau, H. L. C. Dutra, M. J. Jones, B. P. McNulty, A. M. Diaz, F. Ware-Gilmore and E. A. McGraw,  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  17. 2023.
Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV), a negative-sense arbovirus, is increasingly common in the upper Midwest of the USA. Transmitted by a range of mosquito genera, JCV's primary amplifying host is white-tailed deer. Aedes aegypti is responsible for transmitting various positive-sense ...
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Wolbachia wMel strain-mediated effects on dengue virus vertical transmission from Aedes aegypti to their offspring

K. Duong Thi Hue, D. da Silva Goncalves, V. Tran Thuy, L. Thi Vo, D. Le Thi, N. Vu Tuyet, G. Nguyen Thi, T. Huynh Thi Xuan, N. Nguyen Minh, P. Nguyen Thanh, S. Yacoub and C. P. Simmons,  Parasites and Vectors,  16:308. 2023.
Background Dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1 to -4) can be transmitted vertically in Aedes aegpti mosquitoes. Whether infection with the wMel strain of the endosymbiont Wolbachia can reduce the incidence of vertical transmission of DENV from infected females to their offspring is ...
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wMel Wolbachia alters female post-mating behaviors and physiology in the dengue vector mosquito Aedes aegypti

J. Osorio, S. Villa-Arias, C. Camargo, L. F. Ramírez-Sánchez, L. M. Barrientos, C. Bedoya, G. Rúa-Uribe, S. Dorus, C. Alfonso-Parra and F. W. Avila,  Communications Biology,  6:865. 2023.
Globally invasive Aedes aegypti disseminate numerous arboviruses that impact human health. One promising method to control Ae. aegypti populations is transinfection with Wolbachia pipientis, which naturally infects ~40–52% of insects but not Ae. aegypti. Transinfection of Ae. ...
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Wolbachia -induced inhibition of O’nyong nyong virus in Anopheles mosquitoes is mediated by Toll signaling and modulated by cholesterol

S. Pujhari, G. L. Hughes, N. Pakpour, Y. Suzuki and J. L. Rasgon,  bioRxiv,  10.1101/2023.05.31.543096. 2023.
Enhanced host immunity and competition for metabolic resources are two main competing hypotheses for the mechanism of Wolbachia -mediated pathogen inhibition in arthropods. Using an Anopheles mosquito - somatic Wolbachia infection - O'nyong nyong virus (ONNV) model, we ...
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An economic evaluation of Wolbachia deployments for dengue control in Vietnam

H. C. Turner, D. L. Quyen, R. Dias, P. T. Huong, C. P. Simmons and K. L. Anders,  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  17:e0011356. 2023.
INTRODUCTION: Dengue is a major public health challenge and a growing problem due to climate change. The release of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is a novel form of vector control against dengue. However, there remains a need to ...
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Genome evolution of dengue virus serotype 1 under selection by Wolbachia pipientis in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

D. Thi Hue Kien, K. Edenborough, D. da Silva Goncalves, T. Thuy Vi, E. Casagrande, H. Thi Le Duyen, V. Thi Long, L. Thi Dui, V. Thi Tuyet Nhu, N. Thi Giang, H. Thi Xuan Trang, E. Lee, I. a. Donovan-Banfield, H. Thi Thuy Van, N. Minh Nguyet, N. Thanh Phong,  Virus Evolution,  9:vead016. 2023.
The introgression of antiviral strains of Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti mosquito populations is a public health intervention for the control of dengue. Plausibly, dengue virus (DENV) could evolve to bypass the antiviral effects of Wolbachia and undermine this approach. Here, we ...
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Investigating Wolbachia symbiont-mediated host protection against a bacterial pathogen using a natural Wolbachia nuclear insert

C. Prigot-Maurice, B. Lheraud, S. Guéritault, S. Beltran-Bech, R. Cordaux, J. Peccoud and C. Braquart-Varnier,  Journal of Invertebrate Pathology,  197:107893. 2023.
Wolbachia bacterial endosymbionts provide protection against pathogens in various arthropod species but the underlying mechanisms remain misunderstood. By using a natural Wolbachia nuclear insert (f-element) in the isopod Armadillidium vulgare, we explored whether Wolbachia ...
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Developing Wolbachia-based disease interventions for an extreme environment

P. A. Ross, S. Elfekih, S. Collier, M. J. Klein, S. S. Lee, M. Dunn, S. Jackson, Y. Zhang, J. K. Axford, X. Gu, J. L. Home, M. S. Nassar, P. N. Paradkar, E. A. Tawfik, F. M. Jiggins, A. M. Almalik, M. B. Al-Fageeh and A. A. Hoffmann,  PLoS Pathogens,  19:e1011117. 2023.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying self-spreading, virus-blocking Wolbachia bacteria are being deployed to suppress dengue transmission. However, there are challenges in applying this technology in extreme environments. We introduced two Wolbachia strains into Ae. aegypti from ...
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Tolerance-conferring defensive symbionts and the evolution of parasite virulence

C. A. Smith and B. Ashby,  bioRxiv,  2022.
Defensive symbionts in the host microbiome can confer protection from infection or reduce the harms of being infected by a parasite. Defensive symbionts are therefore promising agents of biocontrol that could be used to control or ameliorate the impact of infectious diseases. ...
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Wolbachia wPip Blocks Zika Virus Transovarial Transmission in Aedes albopictus

Y. Guo, J. Guo, Y. Li, X. Zheng and Y. Wu,  Microbiol Spectrum,  e0263321. 2022.
Area-wide application of Wolbachia to suppress mosquito populations and their transmitted viruses has achieved success in multiple countries. However, the mass release of Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes involves a potential risk of accidentally releasing fertile females. In ...
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Developing Wolbachia-based disease interventions for an extreme environment

P. A. Ross, S. Elfekih, S. Collier, M. J. Klein, S. S. Lee, M. Dunn, S. Jackson, Y. Zhang, J. K. Axford, X. Gu, M. S. Nasar, P. N. Paradkar, E. A. Taoufik, F. M. Jiggins, A. M. Almalik, M. B. Al-Fageeh and A. A. Hoffmann,  bioRxiv,  2022.07.26.501527. 2022.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying self-spreading, virus-blocking Wolbachia bacteria are being deployed to suppress dengue transmission. However, there are challenges in applying this technology in extreme environments. We introduced two Wolbachia strains into Ae. aegypti from ...
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Attempts to use breeding approaches in Aedes aegypti to create lines with distinct and stable relative Wolbachia densities

A. J. Mejia, L. Jimenez, H. L. C. Dutra, R. Perera and E. A. McGraw,  Heredity,  2022.
Wolbachia is an insect endosymbiont being used for biological control in the mosquito Aedes aegypti because it causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and limits viral replication of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. While the genetic mechanism of pathogen blocking (PB) is ...
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