ArticlePLoS pathogens2021
Sugar feeding protects against arboviral infection by enhancing gut immunity in the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of sugar-based baits on midgut microbiome composition in Aedes mosquitoes: Implications for vector control.PloS one · 2026Article
- Entomological Surveillance and Vector Competence: A Crucial Front in Dengue Prevention.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2026Review
- Impact of invasive weed Parthenium hysterophorus (Asteraceae) on mosquito abundance and plant-feeding behavior in an arboviral endemic region in Kenya.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- The impact of sugar diet on humidity preference, survival, and host landing in mosquitoes.Journal of medical entomology · 2025Article
- A diet-induced obese and diabetic host phenotype reduces mosquito ZIKV infections and remodels gut metabolism.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Diet of schistosome vectors influences infection outcomes.Ecosphere (Washington, D.C) · 2024Article
- The dynamics of the midgut microbiome inPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- The influence of oviposition status on measures of transmission potential in malaria-infected mosquitoes depends on sugar availability.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Effects of Carbohydrate Intake onInsects · 2024Article
- Sugar and blood: the nutritional priorities of the dengue vector, Aedes aegypti.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Rapid detection of West Nile and Dengue viruses from mosquito saliva by loop-mediated isothermal amplification and displaced probes.PloS one · 2024Article
- Nutritional stress compromises mosquito fitness and antiviral immunity, while enhancing dengue virus infection susceptibility.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Impact of the microbiome on mosquito-borne diseases.Protein & cell · 2023Review
- Sugar restriction and blood ingestion shape divergent immune defense trajectories in the mosquito Aedes aegypti.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- TargetingViruses · 2023Review
- A rare sugar, allose, inhibits the development ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- The effect of temperature on dengue virus transmission byFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Review
- Interactions between innate immunity and insulin signaling affect resistance to infection in insects.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Chronic depletion of vertebrate lipids in Aedes aegypti cells dysregulates lipid metabolism and inhibits innate immunity without altering dengue infectivity.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Contemporary exploitation of natural products for arthropod-borne pathogen transmission-blocking interventions.Parasites & vectors · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
As mosquito females require a blood meal to reproduce, they can act as vectors of numerous pathogens, such as arboviruses (e.g. Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses), which constitute a substantial worldwide public health burden. In addition to blood meals, mosquito females can also take sugar meals to get carbohydrates for their energy reserves. It is now recognised that diet is a key regulator of health and disease outcome through interactions with the immune system. However, this has been mostly studied in humans and model organisms. So far, the impact of sugar feeding on mosquito immunity and in turn, how this could affect vector competence for arboviruses has not been explored. Here, we show that sugar feeding increases and maintains antiviral immunity in the digestive tract of the main arbovirus vector Aedes aegypti. Our data demonstrate that the gut microbiota does not mediate the sugar-induced immunity but partly inhibits it. Importantly, sugar intake prior to an arbovirus-infected blood meal further protects females against infection with arboviruses from different families. Sugar feeding blocks arbovirus initial infection and dissemination from the gut and lowers infection prevalence and intensity, thereby decreasing the transmission potential of female mosquitoes. Finally, we show that the antiviral role of sugar is mediated by sugar-induced immunity. Overall, our findings uncover a crucial role of sugar feeding in mosquito antiviral immunity which in turn decreases vector competence for arboviruses. Since Ae. aegypti almost exclusively feed on blood in some natural settings, our findings suggest that this lack of sugar intake could increase the spread of mosquito-borne arboviral diseases.
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Registered trials
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