• Sending out bacteria-carrying mosquitoes

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Tue Apr 19 22:30:44 2022
    Sending out bacteria-carrying mosquitoes to protect people from dengue
    Identifying vulnerable geographic areas so Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes
    can protect as many people as possible

    Date:
    April 19, 2022
    Source:
    American Institute of Physics
    Summary:
    Researchers developed a model to spatially distribute mosquitoes
    infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which reduce the transmission of
    the dengue virus. The researchers use real data on human and vector
    activity in a framework that can be analyzed from a mathematical
    point of view, allowing them to re-create and understand the
    epidemiological situation and identify those geographical areas
    with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that
    prioritizes those where Wolbachia- carrying mosquitoes can have
    the strongest and most beneficial impact on the spread of the virus.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Dengue is the most widespread mosquito-borne disease in the world, and
    to date, there are no medical treatments for people suffering from this disease. The virus causes symptoms ranging from high fevers to severe
    bleeding and shock, can be life-threatening, and presents an enormous
    burden on health systems.


    ==========================================================================
    In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Spain, Portugal, and
    Colombia developed a model the virus. In 2009, researchers discovered mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia bacteria lessen the chances for the dengue
    virus to impact humans.

    Mosquitoes do not acquire Wolbachia bacteria in their natural
    environment, however. This bacterium must be introduced in vitro in
    mosquitoes' eggs, which are later released in areas affected by dengue transmission. Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia naturally take over
    the local mosquito population.

    The researchers use real data on human and vector activity in a framework
    that can be analyzed from a mathematical point of view, allowing
    them to re-create and understand the epidemiological situation. In
    this way, they can identify those geographical areas with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that prioritizes those where Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes can have the strongest and most beneficial
    impact on the spread of the dengue virus.

    "One might think that the most populated areas are those in which
    Wolbachia release would be most beneficial. However, this is not always
    true," said co- author Jesus Gomez-Gardenes, from Universidad del Valle
    in Colombia.

    The authors found once they immunize the most vulnerable geographical
    area, the ranking of the remaining areas is affected, giving rise to a
    new scenario that tells them where they should concentrate resources in
    the second instance and beyond.

    The findings from this research will be beneficial to many groups,
    such as the World Mosquito Program, which is currently releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to protect the global community from
    diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika.

    In these kinds of initiatives, the information about the most vulnerable
    areas within cities or regions proved the researchers' model could
    complement field studies to find targets that maximize the benefit for
    the whole community.

    "Data-driven models have also proven useful to tackle the evolution and mitigation of other diseases such as COVID-19," said Gomez-Gardenes.

    "Hopefully, the framework developed for dengue can be further generalized
    for tackling the control of other vector-borne diseases."

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Institute_of_Physics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. A. Reyna-Lara, D. Soriano-Pan~os, J. H. Arias-Castro,
    H. J. Marti'nez, J.

    Go'mez-Garden~es. A metapopulation approach to identify targets for
    Wolbachia-based dengue control. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal
    of Nonlinear Science, 2022; 32 (4): 041105 DOI: 10.1063/5.0087435 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220419112514.htm

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