Zika and dengue fever are diseases transmitted through mosquitoes. Zika and dengue virus have been shown to alter the odor of the skin so that the host’s blood is more palatable to mosquitoes.
These viruses appear to have developed this ability to spread themselves, continuously infecting both host animals and mosquitoes.
A joint research team from the University of Connecticut in the United States and Tsinghua University in China published the results of this study in the academic journal Cell on the 30th (local time).
When the researchers released mosquitoes in the presence of healthy and dengue-infected mice, the mosquitoes flocked to more dengue-infected mice. Next, they analyzed the molecules responsible for odor in the skin of healthy and infected mice, and identified molecules that were common in infected mice.
When these molecules were applied to the skin of healthy rats and human volunteers, a substance called acetophenone was found to be particularly attractive to mosquitoes. In the skin of dengue patients, more acetophenone was produced and more mosquitoes were attracted.
Acetophenone is mainly produced by Bacillus bacteria on the skin of humans and mice. In patients infected with Zika or dengue virus, antibacterial peptides that inhibit external invading bacteria did not come out as much as healthy people, so Bacillus was able to grow rapidly.
“The Zika and dengue virus manipulate the microbiome of the host’s skin, attracting more mosquitoes and allowing them to spread faster,” said Penghua Wang, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s School of Public Health.
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The researchers also found that isotretinoin, a vitamin A derivative, may play a role in repelling mosquitoes. Isotretinoin is known to increase the production of antibacterial peptides in the skin, and mice treated with this ingredient were less prone to mosquito bites.
Zika and dengue fever belong to the same group as the viruses that cause Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, and West Nile infectious diseases.