Oral Presentation Lorne Infection and Immunity 2019

Engineered resistance to arboviruses in Aedes aegypti (#31)

Anna Buchman 1 , Stephanie Gamez 1 , Melissa J Klein 2 , Jean-Bernard Duchemin 2 , Omar S Akbari 1 , Prasad N Paradkar 2
  1. University of California, San DIego, San Diego, USA
  2. CSIRO, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Arboviruses like dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses, are some of the most important emerging infectious diseases. Other than yellow fever, there is a lack of effective vaccines and antiviral drugs to prevent and treat arboviral infections and consequently, vector control remains the primary strategy to reduce human transmission. With the rapid advances in insect genetic engineering, mathematical modelling, and increased understanding of pathogen-vector interactions, unique opportunities have emerged to prevent vector-borne disease transmission through genetic engineering of vector populations. In recent years, innovative vector control methods, such as the Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal (RIDL) or DENV and ZIKV transmission blocking Wolbachia infected Ae. aegypti and the Wolbachia- based population suppression, have been evaluated in the field, with some success. Here, we employed two separate strategies to develop transgenic mosquitoes- one line resistant to Zika virus (with the use of polycistronic miRNA cassette) and another line resistant to dengue virus (with the use of single-chain pan-serotype antibody). Our results show that expression of these transgenes post-blood feeding renders homozygous transgenic mosquitoes completely refractory to the specific viruses. Other than providing proof-of-concept for use of these strategies in generating virus-resistant mosquitoes, these compelling results provide a promising path forward for the development of effective arboviral control strategies using genetically engineered mosquitoes.