Protein in mosquito saliva helps spread Dengue, Zika to humans: Yale University Study

The new discovery by Yale University is targeted towards preventative treatments of Dengue, and Zika infections.

Study in US: Yale researchers have found that a protein present in the saliva of mosquitoes accelerates the spread of mosquito-borne diseases including Zika and Dengue fever that affect more than 700 million people across the globe. The new study can help in the development of preventative treatments.

The university findings suggested that when a mosquito bites animals or humans the saliva also gets transferred to them and also many other molecules in their saliva that affect their hosts.

Dr. Erol Fikrig, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and co-senior author of the study said, “That saliva is filled with pharmacologically active components. A lot of those are meant to help the mosquito feed, preventing blood clots for example. We wanted to know if there were components in mosquito saliva that could enhance viral infectivity.”

Nest1 Protein Details

In a former study, Fikrig and his colleagues found about Nest1 protein present in the saliva of mosquitos that carries Dengue and Zika viruses and can increase viral infection of mice. In the new study, they tried to better understand about this protein and how it affects viral infection in humans.

They found that the mosquitos protein interacts with human skin's biological molecules and tested it against over 2,600 human proteins to see if Nest1 gets attached to them. The scientists found that it strongly binds with a molecule called Cluster of Differentiation 47, or CD47.

Fikrig, who is also a professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at Yale School of Public Health said, “We didn’t believe it at first. We also saw that Nest1 bound very specifically to CD47. So it’s a very potent, exogenous molecule that a mosquito has made that inhibits a human molecule.”

"Through its interaction with CD47, Nest1 was able to inhibit key immune functions like phagocytosis — in which a cell ingests and neutralizes pathogens or cell debris — reduce the activity of several protective immune pathways and increase the activity of pathways involved in virus replication, the researchers found. The overall effect was one that suppressed antiviral responses in the skin and boosted viral activity,” said the official statement of the university.

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