Chinese scientists unlock mosquito mystery in scent study that could aid control of dengue and Zika
- Findings open the door to a new strategy using vitamin supplements to control mosquito-vectored diseases
- Chemical analysis of infected mice and humans identified a molecule, called acetophenone, that mosquitoes found particularly attractive
The finding, published on Cell online journal on Thursday, opened the door to a new strategy for controlling mosquito-vectored diseases with a vitamin supplement to interrupt the process and potentially reduce the risk of infecting others with the virus.
Dengue virus, which causes fever, rash and sometimes death, is spread by mosquitoes in tropical areas, and more than 50 million cases occur each year.
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Zika virus can cause brain or nervous system complications and birth defects when a pregnant woman is infected. In a tropical climate, the disease is spread by mosquitoes which bite the infected host animals, get infected themselves and pass the virus on through future bites.
It was already known that some diseases change the host’s odour, making it attractive to mosquitoes. A group of researchers from Tsinghua University, the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Shenzhen and the Ruili Hospital of Chinese Medicine, started their groundbreaking research by examining whether this also applied to dengue and Zika viruses.
“Mosquitoes rely on their sense of smell to detect hosts and guide fundamental behaviours of survival. At the beginning of this study, we found that the mosquitoes preferred to seek and feed on dengue- and Zika-infected mice,” said study lead scientist Cheng Gong, of Tsinghua University’s School of Medicine.
Through tests, they found mosquitoes were more attracted to dengue and Zika-infected mice than healthy mice. They went on to investigate the cause of this attraction.
