Clone 13-infected Aedes aegypti salivary components inhibit Rift Valley fever virus pathogenicity.

Alain Le Coupanec (1) , Divya Babin (1) , Michèle Bouloy (1) , Valérie Choumet (1, 2)

1 Génétique Moléculaire des Bunyavirus
2 Interactions Moléculaires Flavivirus-Hôtes

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) continues to cause large outbreaks among humans and domestic animals in Africa. RVFV Clone 13, a naturally attenuated clone, is a promising vaccine which was used during the 2009-2010 outbreak in South Africa and played a key role in the control of the disease. In this work, we infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with RVFV Clone 13 and prepared salivary gland extracts (SGE). C57BL/6-NRJ male mice were infected with a mixture of SGE infected by Clone 13 and the ZH548 RVFV strain. With the injection of increasing doses of Clone 13-infected SGE, all mice were protected. Our results suggest Clone 13 infected SGE contain unique antiviral components able to counteract the replication of RVFV when injected into vertebrates.

Keywords: Salivary gland; Clone 13; Arbovirus; Rift Valley fever virus; Aedes aegypti; Pathogenicity

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology

Alain Le Coupanec, Divya Babin, Michèle Bouloy, Valérie Choumet. Clone 13-infected Aedes aegypti salivary components inhibit Rift Valley fever virus pathogenicity.. Microbes and Infection, 2014, pp.439-44. ⟨10.1016/j.micinf.2014.01.008⟩. ⟨pasteur-01054564⟩