| Autor: |
Williams AE; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA., Sanchez-Vargas I; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA., Reid WR; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA., Lin J; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA., Franz AWE; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA., Olson KE; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. |
| Abstrakt: |
The resurgence of arbovirus outbreaks across the globe, including the recent Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in 2015-2016, emphasizes the need for innovative vector control methods. In this study, we investigated ZIKV susceptibility to transgenic Aedes aegypti engineered to target the virus by means of the antiviral small-interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway. The robustness of antiviral effector expression in transgenic mosquitoes is strongly influenced by the genomic insertion locus and transgene copy number; we therefore used CRISPR/Cas9 to re-target a previously characterized locus (Chr2:321382225) and engineered mosquitoes expressing an inverted repeat (IR) dsRNA against the NS3/4A region of the ZIKV genome. Small RNA analysis revealed that the IR effector triggered the mosquito's siRNA antiviral pathway in bloodfed females. Nearly complete (90%) inhibition of ZIKV replication was found in vivo in both midguts and carcasses at 7 or 14 days post-infection (dpi). Furthermore, significantly fewer transgenic mosquitoes contained ZIKV in their salivary glands ( p = 0.001), which led to a reduction in the number of ZIKV-containing saliva samples as measured by transmission assay. Our work shows that Ae. aegypti innate immunity can be co-opted to engineer mosquitoes resistant to ZIKV. |
