Mosquito saliva found effective at keeping Dengue virus at bay

Mosquito saliva, which is long-known to help the transmission of infectious agents into the host, is also found to inhibit the virus in case of Dengue infection. A protein named D7, which is present in Aedes aegypti mosquito spit, inhibits the transmission of Dengue by binding to the virus in both human cells and mice. However, antibodies against D7 that have developed in humans as a result of earlier exposures counteract the protein and paves way for transmission of virus as well as increase severity of the infection. In the study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, lead researcher Michael Conway, from Central Michigan University College of Medicine, and his team, explored the possibility of using mosquito saliva and its midgut protein in blocking the transmission of Dengue virus. It is said that the above approach has an advantage over vaccines based on viral proteins because the development process of the said...