Breakthrough: Dr Prasad Pradkar at work in his Moolap laboratory.
By John Van Klaveren
A GEELONG breakthrough in preventing mosquito-borne viruses could save thousands of lives worldwide.
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory genomic scientist Dr Prasad Paradkar said the discovery was an early step to eliminating global viruses such as Dengue and West Nile fevers and Japanese encephalitis.
The Geelong facility, among world leader’s in its research field, discovered that mosquitos had a natural defence against the viruses.
The team would now investigate how to use that defence to reduce or eliminate mosquito transmission of the viruses, Dr Prasad said.
“The basic objective is to increase mosquito resistance against transmitting viruses. This has massive world health implications.”
Dengue infects 50 to 100 million people and results in about 22,000 deaths annually around the world.
“We found that when mosquitoes get infected their cells sense the virus, stimulating a protein called vago,” Dr Paradkar said.
“The secreted vago then signals an anti-viral defensive response to limit the infection.
“Once we understand the dynamics between the virus and the mosquito we can manipulate the protein to use as a control measure.
“Until now very little was known about the defensive anti-viral response of insects.
“This can potentially lead to improved vaccines and other control measures.”
Dr Paradkar said scientists hoped to develop a genetic solution to mosquito-transmitted viruses.
Their short life-cycle meant non-transmitting mosquitoes could quickly replace infected mozzies.
Dr Paradkar said the research was becoming relevant to the region, with Dengue-carrying mosquitoes moving south toward Victoria due to climate change.
“We are very pleased with the discovery but it will be at least five years before we will be able to apply it more practically.”
The discovery was the first demonstration of the existence of an immunity mechanism in mosquitoes or any other invertebrate.
CSIRO will use the new knowledge to explore the use of vago for the control of viruses in aquaculture species including prawns and abalone.
The team’s finding was published online in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
