Project description
Decoding the role of mosquito RBPs
Tiny six-legged creatures, the mosquito is dangerous to human health as they are the most effective disease vectors of the entire animal kingdom. Among these, the Aedes mosquito is the deadliest as it transmits viruses such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. For many years, insecticides have been used to control mosquito populations, but mosquitos have demonstrated their capability to evolve resistance. The EU-funded DRmov project will investigate the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in mosquitos. Involved in cellular and viral RNA metabolism, the RBPs are considered ideal targets for antiviral therapies. The project proposes to profile the compendium of mosquito RBPs (RBPome) using RNA-interactome capture (RNA-IC).
Objective
The impact of mosquito-borne diseases has expanded dramatically in the last few decades to become an emerging global health problem, with around 1 billion new infections and 1 million deaths each year. In Europe there are more than 20 countries with established populations of invasive Aedes mosquitoes. Aedes mosquitoes are the principle vectors responsible for transmitting high-risk pathogens such as ZIKA virus (ZIKV), dengue (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV), chikungunya virus (CHKV) and Venezuelan equine encephalitic virus (VEEV). Despite our vulnerabilities to mosquito-borne diseases, virus replication dynamics is still poorly understood especially in the invertebrate vectors. No treatment against these viruses targeting essential viral proteins are currently available. Thus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its Vector Control Advisory Group has urged for insect vector control. Vector control is usually performed through insecticides; however, resistance can emerge in mosquitoes leading to persistence of the disease. Therefore, virologists are turning their interests toward host factors that play essential roles in infection as novel antiviral targets, since they can potentially exhibit broad-spectrum efficacy. In particular, scientists envision that genetically modified mosquitoes with disrupted genes required for infection can be re-inserted into natural habitats or through targeting these genes by RNAi in order to control viral spread. As all mosquito-borne viruses have RNA genome, cellular RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) emerge as ideal targets for antiviral therapies, as they are key players in cellular and viral RNA metabolism . Thus, we propose here to profile comprehensively the compendium of mosquito RBPs (RBPome) using RNA-interactome capture (RNA-IC). Furthermore, we will apply different cutting-edge methods to identify the role of mosquito RBPs during virus infection.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
G12 8QQ Glasgow
United Kingdom