ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2023
Sialokinin in mosquito saliva shifts human immune responses towards intracellular pathogens.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Aedes aegypti salivary gland extract enhances Zika virus replication through immune modulation.Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz · 2026Article
- Article
- Mosquito salivary sialokinin reduces monocyte activation and chikungunya virus-induced inflammation via neurokinin receptors.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adultbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Dysregulated immune cell responses in severe dengue pathogenesis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Insect-specific virus platforms for arbovirus vaccine development.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- The Dynamic Relationship between Dengue Virus and the Human Cutaneous Innate Immune Response.Viruses · 2024Review
- Aedes albopictus salivary adenosine deaminase is an immunomodulatory factor facilitating dengue virus replication.Scientific reports · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mosquito saliva is a mix of numerous proteins that are injected into the skin while the mosquito searches for a blood meal. While mosquito saliva is known to be immunogenic, the salivary components driving these immune responses, as well as the types of immune responses that occur, are not well characterized. We investigated the effects of one potential immunomodulatory mosquito saliva protein, sialokinin, on the human immune response. We used flow cytometry to compare human immune cell populations between humanized mice bitten by sialokinin knockout mosquitoes or injected with sialokinin, and compared them to those bitten by wild-type mosquitoes, unbitten, or saline-injected control mice. Humanized mice received 4 mosquito bites or a single injection, were euthanized after 7 days, and skin, spleen, bone marrow, and blood were harvested for immune cell profiling. Our results show that bites from sialokinin knockout mosquitoes induced monocyte and macrophage populations in the skin, blood, bone marrow, and spleens, and primarily affected CD11c- cell populations. Other increased immune cells included plasmacytoid dendritic cells in the blood, natural killer cells in the skin and blood, and CD4+ T cells in all samples analyzed. Conversely, we observed that mice bitten with sialokinin knockout mosquitoes had decreased NKT cell populations in the skin, and fewer B cells in the blood, spleen, and bone marrow. Taken together, we demonstrated that sialokinin knockout saliva induces elements of a TH1 cellular immune response, suggesting that the sialokinin peptide is inducing a TH2 cellular immune response during wild-type mosquito biting. These findings are an important step towards understanding how mosquito saliva modulates the human immune system and which components of saliva may be critical for arboviral infection. By identifying immunomodulatory salivary proteins, such as sialokinin, we can develop vaccines against mosquito saliva components and direct efforts towards blocking arboviral infections.
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