Journal article
The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations
T Walker, PH Johnson, LA Moreira, I Iturbe-Ormaetxe, FD Frentiu, CJ McMeniman, YS Leong, Y Dong, J Axford, P Kriesner, AL Lloyd, SA Ritchie, SL O'Neill, AA Hoffmann
Nature | Published : 2011
DOI: 10.1038/nature10355
Abstract
Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans with more than 50 million cases estimated annually in more than 100 countries. Disturbingly, the geographic range of dengue is currently expanding and the severity of outbreaks is increasing. Control options for dengue are very limited and currently focus on reducing population abundance of the major mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. These strategies are failing to reduce dengue incidence in tropical communities and there is an urgent need for effective alternatives. It has been proposed that endosymbiotic bacterial Wolbachia infections of insects might be used in novel strategies for dengue control. For example, the wMe..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to N. Kenny for technical support and to members of the O'Neill laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank R. Silcock, M. Janes, S. Long, C. Paton and C. Omodei for their assistance in the semi-field cages and laboratory at James Cook University. We are very grateful for all of our volunteers who helped to blood-feed the mosquitoes in the cages and to P. Young for providing the anti-dengue antibodies. This research was supported by a grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, the RAPIDD program of the NIH, the Climate and Health Cluster of the CSIRO Flagship collaboration Fund and fellowships from the Australian Research Council.