ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2018
Mosquito saliva alone has profound effects on the human immune system.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 110 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Evaluation of cutaneous immune response in a controlled human in vivo model of mosquito bites.Nature communications · 2022Trial
- Randomized clinical trial to assess the protective efficacy of a Plasmodium vivax CS synthetic vaccine.Nature communications · 2022Trial
- Safety and immunogenicity of a mosquito saliva peptide-based vaccine: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 1 trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2020Trial
- Small extracellular vesicles from DENV2-infected C6/36 cells show viral infectionEmerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Rapidly evolving aphid gall effector proteins exhibit saposin-like folds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Multiple orthoflaviviruses secrete sfRNA in mosquito saliva to promote transmission by inhibiting MDA5-mediated early interferon response.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Mosquito Saliva Subunit Vaccine Enhances Efficacy of VLP Vaccines Against Zika and Chikungunya Viruses.Vaccines · 2026Article
- Human sand fly challenge elicits saliva-specific innate and type 1-polarized immunity that promotes Leishmania killing.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Rapidly evolving aphid gall effector proteins exhibit saposin-like folds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- From promise to pitfalls: immunological lessons from dengue vaccines and their implications.NPJ vaccines · 2026Review
- Contribution of Immune Responses toJournal of inflammation research · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Plastic responses ofBiology letters · 2025Article
- Review
- Mosquito salivary sialokinin reduces monocyte activation and chikungunya virus-induced inflammation via neurokinin receptors.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Human sand fly challenge elicits saliva-specific innate and TbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mosquito saliva is a very complex concoction of >100 proteins, many of which have unknown functions. The effects of mosquito saliva proteins injected into our skin during blood feeding have been studied mainly in mouse models of injection or biting, with many of these systems producing results that may not be relevant to human disease. Here, we describe the numerous effects that mosquito bites have on human immune cells in mice engrafted with human hematopoietic stem cells. We used flow cytometry and multiplex cytokine bead array assays, with detailed statistical analyses, to detect small but significant variations in immune cell functions after 4 mosquitoes fed on humanized mice footpads. After preliminary analyses, at different early times after biting, we focused on assessing innate immune and subsequent cellular responses at 6 hours, 24 hours and 7 days after mosquito bites. We detected both Th1 and Th2 human immune responses, and delayed effects on cytokine levels in the blood, and immune cell compositions in the skin and bone marrow, up to 7 days post-bites. These are the first measurements of this kind, with human immune responses in whole animals, bitten by living mosquitoes, versus previous studies using incomplete mouse models and salivary gland extracts or needle injected saliva. The results have major implications for the study of hematophagous insect saliva, its effects on the human immune system, with or without pathogen transmission, and the possibility of determining which of these proteins to target for vaccination, in attempts to block transmission of numerous tropical diseases.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.