Cell Rep: insulin improves mosquito immune response to West Nile virus

November 16, 2019 / BIOON / -- recently, a study led by Washington State University provided a new solution to inhibit the spread of West Nile virus, Zika virus and dengue virus In a study published today in the journal Cell reports, researchers have shown that mammalian insulin activates the antiviral immune pathway in mosquitoes, thereby enhancing the insect's ability to suppress viruses Mosquito bites are the most common form of human infection with flavivirus, including West Nile virus, dengue virus and Zika virus In humans, both West Nile and dengue can cause serious disease and even death When pregnant women are infected, Zika virus is associated with the birth defects of the baby (image source: www Pixabay Com) "because we do not have any treatment at present, we must take effective preventive measures against these diseases, If infection can be prevented at mosquito level, then humans will no longer be infected with the virus " Dr Laura Ahlers, lead author of the study, said First, Ahlers and her colleagues found an insulin-like receptor in insects that, when activated, inhibits the replication of WNV in fruit flies The researchers then induced the same reaction by feeding mosquitoes blood with higher levels of insulin Subsequent tests showed that activation of the receptor could also effectively inhibit the replication of dengue and Zika virus in insect cells Although previous studies have shown that insulin can enhance the immune response of mosquitoes, this study for the first time found that insulin is related to a specific immune response pathway called JAK / stat "If we can activate this immunity through the insulin receptor in mosquitoes, we can reduce the viral load in mosquitoes," said Alan Goodman, assistant professor of WSU and corresponding author of the paper If mosquitoes carry fewer viruses when they bite, then they will spread fewer viruses, and people will be less likely to get the disease " Sources of information: in can increase mostly 'importance to West Nile virus original sources: Laura R.H Ahlers, chase E Trammell, grace f Carrell, Sophie MacKinnon, Brandi K torrevillas, Clement y Chow, Shirley lucky Hart, Alan G Goodman Insulin Potentiates JAK/STAT Signaling to Broadly Inhibit Flavivirus Replication in Insect Vectors Cell Reports, 2019; 29 (7): 1946 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.10.029