Infection of Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes with Midgut-Attenuated Sindbis Virus Reduces, but Does Not Eliminate, Disseminated Infection.

ABSTRACT: Arboviruses are transmitted by specific vectors, and the reasons for this specificity are not fully understood. One contributing factor is the existence of tissue barriers within the vector such as the midgut escape barrier. We used microRNA (miRNA) targeting of Sindbis virus (SINV) to study how replication in midgut cells contributes to overcoming this barrier in the mosquito Aedes aegypti. SINV constructs were designed to be attenuated specifically in midgut cells by inserting binding sites for midgut-specific miRNAs into either the 3' untranslated region (MRE3'miRT) or the structural open reading frame (MRE-ORFmiRT) of the SINV genome. Both miRNA-targeted viruses replicated less efficiently than control viruses in the presence of these miRNAs. When mosquitoes were given infectious blood

SUBMITTER: Carpenter A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8437354 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature