The saliva of mosquitoes infected with the dengue virus contains a messenger that blocks the human immune system’s response, a recent study shows.
The information was revealed by new medical research that showed how certain substances favor mosquito-borne infections.
Mosquitoes can be a serious health problem, not only because of the discomfort caused by their bites, but also because of the risk that some species transmit various viral infections, including very serious ones such as dengue, chikungunya and West Nile.
New research published in the scientific journal Plos Pathogens revealed that mosquito bites can also threaten the immune defenses and increase the risk of infection.
The study, led by Shih-Chia Yeh from Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore and Tania Strilets from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, USA, showed that the saliva of mosquitoes infected with the dengue virus contains a chemical messenger that prevents the response of the human immune system, thus favoring the infection, writes Mediafax. This substance, produced directly by the virus and known as sfRNA (subgenomic flaviral RNA), is present at high levels in the saliva of infected mosquitoes and explains why the disease is so easily transmitted.
Read also: WHO warns of the increase in mosquitoes that transmit viral diseases in Europe
About half of the world’s population is at risk of dengue: every year, nearly 400 million people are infected with this virus, which causes symptoms such as fever, nausea and skin rashes that are often mistaken for other diseases.
Some people can develop severe forms, which can lead to circulatory collapse (dengue shock syndrome), internal bleeding and death.
Dengue can be taken more than once.
