Efficient blood feeding requires that arthropods be able to contend with the hemostatic and immune responses of their vertebrate hosts. The Yellow Fever mosquito Aedes aegypti has a variety of salivary factors that inhibit platelet function and clotting, and cause vasodilation. We have now found that saliva induces apoptosis in cells involved in the host immune response. In particular this activity affects CD4 and CD8 T-cells, gamma-delta T-cells, and B-cells. In contrast, macrophages and dendritic cells are not affected. Consequences of this activity for the development of immune memory and response to mosquito-borne pathogens will be discussed.
Species 1: Diptera Culicidae Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito)
Keywords: immunomodulation, blood feeding
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section D. Medical and Veterinary Entomology
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