Almire, F., Terhzaz, S. , Terry, S., McFarlane, M. , Gestuveo, R. J., Szemiel, A. M., Varjak, M. , McDonald, A., Kohl, A. and Pondeville, E. (2021) Sugar feeding protects against arboviral infection by enhancing gut immunity in the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti. PLoS Pathogens, 17(9), e1009870. (doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009870) (PMID:34473801) (PMCID:PMC8412342)
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Abstract
As mosquito females require a blood meal to reproduce, they can act as vectors of numerous pathogens, such as arboviruses (e.g. Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses), which constitute a substantial worldwide public health burden. In addition to blood meals, mosquito females can also take sugar meals to get carbohydrates for their energy reserves. It is now recognised that diet is a key regulator of health and disease outcome through interactions with the immune system. However, this has been mostly studied in humans and model organisms. So far, the impact of sugar feeding on mosquito immunity and in turn, how this could affect vector competence for arboviruses has not been explored. Here, we show that sugar feeding increases and maintains antiviral immunity in the digestive tract of the main arbovirus vector Aedes aegypti. Our data demonstrate that the gut microbiota does not mediate the sugar-induced immunity but partly inhibits it. Importantly, sugar intake prior to an arbovirus-infected blood meal further protects females against infection with arboviruses from different families. Sugar feeding blocks arbovirus initial infection and dissemination from the gut and lowers infection prevalence and intensity, thereby decreasing the transmission potential of female mosquitoes. Finally, we show that the antiviral role of sugar is mediated by sugar-induced immunity. Overall, our findings uncover a crucial role of sugar feeding in mosquito antiviral immunity which in turn decreases vector competence for arboviruses. Since Ae. aegypti almost exclusively feed on blood in some natural settings, our findings suggest that this lack of sugar intake could increase the spread of mosquito-borne arboviral diseases.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Varjak, Dr Margus and Gestuveo, Mr Rommel and Almire, Ms Floriane and Terhzaz, Dr Selim and Pondeville, Dr Emilie and Mcdonald, Mrs Alma and Mcdonald, Dr Melanie and Kohl, Professor Alain and Terry, Mrs Sandra and Szemiel, Dr Agnieszka |
| Creator Roles: | Almire, F.Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing Terhzaz, S.Investigation, Writing – review and editing Terry, S.Investigation, Project administration Gestuveo, R.Investigation, Writing – review and editing Varjak, M.Resources, Writing – review and editing Mcdonald, A.Investigation Kohl, A.Funding acquisition, Writing – review and editing Pondeville, E.Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing McFarlane, M.Investigation, Writing – review and editing Szemiel, A. M.Investigation, Resources, Writing – review and editing |
| Authors: | Almire, F., Terhzaz, S., Terry, S., McFarlane, M., Gestuveo, R. J., Szemiel, A. M., Varjak, M., McDonald, A., Kohl, A., and Pondeville, E. |
| College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research |
| Journal Name: | PLoS Pathogens |
| Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
| ISSN: | 1553-7366 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1553-7374 |
| Published Online: | 02 September 2021 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2021 Almire et al. |
| First Published: | First published in PLoS Pathogens 17(9): e1009870 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons License |
| Related URLs: | |
| Data DOI: | 10.5525/gla.researchdata.1094 |
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