Project description
Modulating mosquito immunity to Dengue
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection causing flu-like illness. Its global incidence has grown dramatically in the last few decades. Its 'severe' form is now a leading cause of hospitalisation and death in most Asian and Latin American countries. Due to insecticide resistance, killing mosquitoes is no longer effective but modulating its immunity to Dengue virus may provide a solution. Preliminary genomic studies of susceptible and immune mosquitoes pointed to differences in metabolic pathways. MetAeAvIm is evaluating the metabolism of mosquitoes via high-tech strategies to determine which genes and pathways modulate Dengue immunity in mosquitoes. Preventing infection in mosquitoes could prevent transmission to humans.
Objective
Mosquito-borne diseases remain among the most prevalent diseases in the world with. At present, more than half of the world population lives in areas where mosquito vectors are present. Vector control is one of the cornerstones of arbovirus control. However, insecticide-resistant population are emerging demanding new tools of vector control to be developed. It is known that mosquito immunity can be modulated by its physiological state and nutritional status. However, we still lack an integrated view of how immune mechanisms and metabolic pathways interact to control viruses at different stages of infection. In order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the gene expression profile associated with immunity to Dengue virus (DENV), we performed a genome-wide analysis of the transcriptome of susceptible and resistant individuals from the same population of mosquitoes. Metabolic pathways represented the majority of the differentially expressed gene sets identified by our analysis, suggesting that differences in metabolism determine DENV resistance. These results support the hypothesis that mosquito metabolism plays a key role in controlling mosquito susceptibility to viral infections. In this project, we will characterize the metabolism of mosquitoes and characterize pathways and genes that are determinants for DENV resistance. We will study the metabolism of A. aegypti, comparing susceptible and resistant mosquitoes, measuring specific metabolic outputs and also performing unbiased high-throughput metabolomic studies. In parallel, we will perform reverse genetic screenings to validate whether metabolic pathways and biological processes identified in our transcriptomic analysis have a role in vector competence to DENV. Finally, we will apply the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and classical transgenesis to target genes and pathways that affect vector competence in mosquitoes. Together, this project will allow for a deeper mechanistic study of mosquito antiviral immunity.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases viral diseases RNA viruses
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA transcriptomes
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology invertebrate zoology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 Paris
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.