Can Zika Virus Change Body Odor?

Acetophenone occurs naturally in many foods, including apples, cheese, apricots, bananas, beef and cauliflower. Mice infected with Zika or Dengue hemorrhagic fever produced ten times more acetophenone than healthy mice.

After the researchers smeared rats and some human volunteers with acetophenone, the researchers were able to confirm that mosquitoes were indeed attracted to the smell of acetophenone.

“So, we only focused on acetophenone in this study. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that humans may secrete different volatile chemicals,” Cheng said, adding that he plans to study the chemical in future experiments.

Cheng and colleagues found that the increase in acetophenone levels was caused by interactions between the host skin microbiota, namely flaviviruses and mosquitoes. Flaviviruses are also the cause of Zika and dengue fever.

The bacteria that produce acetophenone grow naturally on the skin. This growth is normally regulated by antimicrobial proteins secreted by skin cells. The study revealed that the gene, which is responsible for making this protein, became less active when the mice were infected with Dengue or Zika.

This causes the host to secrete more acetophenone than normal, and attracts hungry mosquitoes. Basically this means that the virus is able to arm itself with the odor of acetophenone to spread more widely.

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