Co-Infection of Mosquitoes with Chikungunya and Dengue Viruses Reveals Modulation of the Replication of Both Viruses in Midguts and Salivary Glands of Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2017-08, Vol.18 (8), p.1708
• Main Authors: Le Coupanec, Alain, Tchankouo-Nguetcheu, Stéphane, Roux, Pascal, Khun, Huot, Huerre, Michel, Morales-Vargas, Ronald, Enguehard, Margot, Lavillette, Dimitri, Missé, Dorothée, Choumet, Valérie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administration, Oral; Aedes - virology; Aedes aegypti; Animals; Antigens; Antigens, Viral - metabolism; arbovirus; chikungunya; Chikungunya virus; Chikungunya virus - physiology; co-infection; Coinfection - virology; dengue; Dengue fever; Dengue Virus - physiology; Digestive System - virology; Exposure; Female; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; Glands; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Infant, Newborn; Infections; Kinetics; Life Sciences; Male; Microbiology and Parasitology; Midgut; Mosquitoes; Pathogens; Replication; RNA, Viral - metabolism; Salivary gland; Salivary glands; Salivary Glands - virology; Serogroup; Virology; Virus Replication; Viruses
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms18081708

Arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) infections cause several emerging and resurgent infectious diseases in humans and animals. Chikungunya-affected areas often overlap with dengue-endemic areas. Concurrent dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infections have been detected in travelers returning from regions of endemicity. CHIKV and DENV co-infected have also been collected in the vicinity of co-infected human cases, emphasizing the need to study co-infections in mosquitoes. We thus aimed to study the pathogen-pathogen interaction involved in these co-infections in DENV/CHIKV co-infected mosquitoes. In mono-infections, we detected CHIKV antigens as early as 4 days post-virus exposure in both the midgut (MG) and salivary gland (SG), whereas we detected DENV serotype 2 (DENV-2) antigens from day 5 post-virus exposure in MG and day 10 post-virus exposure in SG. Identical infection rates were observed for singly and co-infected mosquitoes, and facilitation of the replication of both viruses at various times post-viral exposure. We observed a higher replication for DENV-2 in SG of co-infected mosquitoes. We showed that mixed CHIKV and DENV infection facilitated viral replication in . The outcome of these mixed infections must be further studied to increase our understanding of pathogen-pathogen interactions in host cells.