PLoS Negl Trop Dis
Laboratorio de Biomedicina Molecular, Centro de Biotecnología Genómica, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Tamaulipas, México.
Published: March 2016
Background: Dengue is the most prevalent arboviral disease transmitted by Aedes aegypti worldwide, whose chemical control is difficult, expensive, and of inconsistent efficacy. Releases of Metarhizium anisopliae--exposed Ae. aegypti males to disseminate conidia among female mosquitoes by mating represents a promising biological control approach against this important vector. A better understanding of fungus virulence and impact on reproductive parameters of Ae. aegypti, is need before testing auto-dissemination strategies.
Methodology/principal Findings: Mortality, mating competitiveness, sperm production, and the capacity to auto-disseminate the fungus to females up to the 5 th copulation, were compared between Aedes aegypti males exposed to 5.96 x 10(7) conidia per cm2 of M. anisopliae and uninfected males. Half (50%) of fungus-exposed males (FEMs) died within the first 4 days post-exposure (PE). FEMs required 34% more time to successively copulate with 5 females (165 ± 3 minutes) than uninfected males (109 ± 3 minutes). Additionally, fungus infection reduced the sperm production by 87% at 5 days PE. Some beneficial impacts were observed, FEMs were able to successfully compete with uninfected males in cages, inseminating an equivalent number of females (about 25%). Under semi-field conditions, the ability of FEMs to search for and inseminate females was also equivalent to uninfected males (both inseminating about 40% females); but for the remaining females that were not inseminated, evidence of tarsal contact (transfer of fluorescent dust) was significantly greater in FEMs compared to controls. The estimated conidia load of a female exposed on the 5th copulation was 5,200 mL(-1) which was sufficient to cause mortality.
Conclusion/significance: Our study is the first to demonstrate auto-dissemination of M. anisopliae through transfer of fungus from males to female Ae. aegypti during mating under semi-field conditions. Our results suggest that auto-dissemination studies using releases of FEMs inside households could successfully infect wild Ae. aegypti females, providing another viable biological control tool for this important the dengue vector.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004144 | DOI Listing |
BMC Infect Dis
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Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100015, People's Republic of China.
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INSERM, Bergonié Institute, BPH, U1219, CIC-P 1401, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
In vitro and animal studies have suggested that inoculation with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can lead to amyloid deposits, hyperphosphorylation of tau, and/or neuronal loss. Here, we studied the association between HSV-1 and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in humans. Our sample included 182 participants at risk of cognitive decline from the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial who had HSV-1 plasma serology and an amyloid PET scan.
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Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México City, México.
Dogs can discriminate between people infected with SARS-CoV-2 from those uninfected, although their results vary depending on the settings in which they are exposed to infected individuals or samples of urine, sweat or saliva. This variability likely depends on the viral load of infected people, which may be closely associated with physiological changes in infected patients. Determining this viral load is challenging, and a practical approach is to use the cycle threshold (Ct) value of a RT-qPCR test.
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Veterinary and Animal Science School, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, 74690-900, Brazil.
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Department of Radiology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
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