From genes to symbionts: arbovirus-vector interactions

许多传染病是通过媒介传播的，如蚊子，包括一组称为虫媒病毒的病毒。气候变化等因素正在增加这些病毒在全球传播的风险。我们的规划旨在了解三种虫媒病毒的传播机制——裂谷热白蛉病毒、人致病性甲病毒基孔肯雅病毒和登革热病毒。这些虫媒病毒有自己的核糖核酸或RNA，这是一种遗传物质。虫媒病毒RNA与蚊子“宿主”中的蛋白质结合，并利用它们帮助病毒繁殖并引起感染。然后，这种感染通过蚊子叮咬传染给人类或动物。已知这些蛋白质在人类和动物抵御病毒感染方面发挥作用。然而，我们对蚊子体内的这些蛋白质知之甚少，也不知道虫媒病毒RNA是如何与这些蛋白质结合并阻止它们发挥抗病毒作用的。我们认为，如果我们能够了解蚊子的这些机制，我们就可以找到阻断病毒传播和感染的新方法，通过特定的干预措施针对这些结合机制，从而防止蚊子通过叮咬将病毒感染传播给人类和动物。

Many infectious diseases are transmitted by vectors such as mosquitos, including a set of viruses called arboviruses. Factors such as climate change are increasing the risk of these viruses being transmitted across the globe. Our programme aims to understand the mechanisms of this transmission in three types of arboviruses –Rift Valley fever phlebovirus, the human pathogenic alphavirus chikungunya and dengue virus. These arboviruses have their own ribonucleic acid, or RNA, which is genetic material. Arbovirus RNA binds to proteins in the mosquito ‘host’ and uses them help the virus multiply and cause infection. This infection is then passed on to humans or animals through the mosquito bite. These proteins are known to play a part in human and animal defences against viral infection. However, we don’t know very much these proteins in mosquitos, or how arbovirus RNA may bind to these proteins and stops them from doing their antiviral job. We think that if we can understand these mechanisms in mosquitos, we could find new ways of blocking virus transmission and infection by targeting those binding mechanisms with specific interventions, thus also preventing mosquitos from transmitting the viral infection to humans and animals through their bites.