Interactions between vector competence to chikungunya virus and resistance to deltamethrin in Aedes aegypti laboratory lines?

Posted by Vector and Vector-borne Disease Committee
November 15, 2022

Lanjiao Wang1|  Albin Fontaine2,3|  Pascal Gaborit1|  Amandine Guidez1|Jean Issaly1|  Romain Girod1|  Mirdad Kazanji4|  Dominique Rousset5|Marco Vignuzzi6|  Yanouk Epelboin1|  Isabelle Dusfour1

1Vectopôle Amazonien Emile Abonnenc, Unité de contrôle et adaptation des vecteurs, Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, Cayenne.  2 Unité de Parasitologie et Entomologie, Département des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, Marseille, France.  3Aix Marseille Université, IRD, AP-HM, SSA, UMR Vecteurs–Infections Tropicales et Méditerranéennes (VITROME), IHU–Méditerranée Infection, Marseille.   5Laboratoire de Virologie, Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, Cayenne cedex, France.  6Unité des Populations Virales et Pathogénèse, Institut Pasteur, Paris cedex 15, France

Medical and Veterinary Entomology 36: 486-495.   https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12593 

Authors’ Abstract.  The urban mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, is the main vector of arboviruses worldwide. Mosquito control with insecticides is the most prevalent method for preventing transmission in the absence of effective vaccines and available treatments; however, the extensive use of insecticides has led to the development of resistance in mosquito populations throughout the world, and the number of epidemics caused by arboviruses has increased. Three mosquito lines with different resistance profiles to deltamethrin were isolated in French Guiana, including one with the I1016 knock-down resistant allele.  Significant differences were observed in the cumulative proportion of mosquitoes with a disseminated chikungunya virus infection over time across these lines. In addition, some genes related to resistance (CYP6BB2,CYP6N12,GST2,trypsin) were variably over expressed in the midgut at 7 days after an infectious bloodmeal in these three lines. Our work shows that vector competence for chikungunya virus varied between Ae. aegypti laboratory lines with different deltamethrin resistance profiles. More accurate verification of the functional association between insecticide resistance and vector competence remains to be demonstrated.

Note:  This  and  related studies provide some evidence that selection for insecticide resistance also may alter the vector competence of the mosquito.   Although California has been monitoring insecticide resistance, less research has been done on the consequences of this resistance on arbovirus transmission.