Back

Challenges in the Biotechnological Implementation of Oral RNA Interference as an Antiviral Strategy in Aedes aegypti

Romoli, O.; Henrion-Lacritick, A.; Blanc, H.; Frangeul, L.; Saleh, M. C.

2023-11-07 microbiology
10.1101/2023.11.05.565667 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti, are critical vectors for globally significant pathogenic viruses. This study examines the limitations of oral RNA interference (RNAi) as a strategy to disrupt viral transmission by Ae. aegypti. We hypothesized that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) targeting the Zika virus (ZIKV) or chikungunya virus (CHIKV) genomes produced by engineered bacterial symbionts could trigger an antiviral response. Mosquitoes mono-colonized with Escherichia coli producing dsZIK or dsCHIK did not display reduced viral titers following exposure to virus-contaminated bloodmeals and failed to generate dsZIK- or dsCHIK-derived small interfering RNAs. To address potential limitations of bacterial dsRNA release, we explored dsRNA inoculation via feeding and injection. While viral replication was impeded in mosquitoes injected with dsZIK or dsCHIK, no antiviral effect was observed in dsRNA-fed mosquitoes. These findings highlight complexities of implementing oral RNAi as an antiviral strategy in Ae. aegypti and warrant further exploration of local and systemic RNAi mechanisms.

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.