A New High-Throughput Tool to Screen Mosquito-Borne Viruses in Zika Virus Endemic/Epidemic Areas

Viruses. 2019 Sep 27;11(10):904. doi: 10.3390/v11100904.

Abstract

Mosquitoes are vectors of arboviruses affecting animal and human health. Arboviruses circulate primarily within an enzootic cycle and recurrent spillovers contribute to the emergence of human-adapted viruses able to initiate an urban cycle involving anthropophilic mosquitoes. The increasing volume of travel and trade offers multiple opportunities for arbovirus introduction in new regions. This scenario has been exemplified recently with the Zika pandemic. To incriminate a mosquito as vector of a pathogen, several criteria are required such as the detection of natural infections in mosquitoes. In this study, we used a high-throughput chip based on the BioMark™ Dynamic arrays system capable of detecting 64 arboviruses in a single experiment. A total of 17,958 mosquitoes collected in Zika-endemic/epidemic countries (Brazil, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Suriname, Senegal, and Cambodia) were analyzed. Here we show that this new tool can detect endemic and epidemic viruses in different mosquito species in an epidemic context. Thus, this fast and low-cost method can be suggested as a novel epidemiological surveillance tool to identify circulating arboviruses.

Keywords: microfluidic analysis; molecular epidemiology; mosquito-borne viruses; surveillance.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arbovirus Infections / transmission
  • Arbovirus Infections / virology
  • Arboviruses / genetics
  • Arboviruses / isolation & purification
  • Brazil
  • Cambodia
  • Culicidae / virology*
  • Disease Vectors
  • Endemic Diseases*
  • Epidemics*
  • Epidemiological Monitoring
  • Female
  • French Guiana
  • Guadeloupe
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays / methods*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Mosquito Vectors / virology
  • Pilot Projects
  • RNA, Viral / isolation & purification
  • Senegal
  • Suriname
  • Zika Virus / genetics
  • Zika Virus / isolation & purification*
  • Zika Virus Infection / epidemiology*
  • Zika Virus Infection / transmission

Substances

  • RNA, Viral