In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization of a New Strain of Mosquito Flavivirus Derived from <em>Culicoides</em>

oleh: Yi Huang, Hongqing Zhang, Xiaodan Li, Lu Zhao, Dirui Cai, Shunlong Wang, Nanjie Ren, Haixia Ma, Doudou Huang, Fei Wang, Zhiming Yuan, Bo Zhang, Han Xia

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-06-01

Deskripsi

Mosquito-specific flaviviruses comprise a group of insect-specific viruses with a single positive RNA, which can affect the duplication of mosquito-borne viruses and the life growth of mosquitoes, and which have the potential to be developed as a vaccine platform for mosquito-borne viruses. In this study, a strain of mosquito flavivirus (MFV) YN15-283-02 was detected in <i>Culicoides</i> collected from Yunnan, China. The isolation of the purified MFV YN15-283-02 from cell culture failed, and the virus was then rescued by an infectious clone. To study the biological features of MFV YN15-283-02 in vitro and in vivo, electron microscopy, phylogenetic tree, and viral growth kinetic analyses were performed in both cell lines and mosquitoes. The rescued MFV (rMFV) YN15-283-02 duplicated and reached a peak in C6/36 cells at 6 d.p.i. with approximately 2 × 10<sup>6</sup> RNA copies/μL (RNA to cell ratio of 0.1), but without displaying a cytopathic effect. In addition, the infection rate for the rMFV in <i>Ae.</i><i>aegypti</i> show a low level in both larvae (≤15%) and adult mosquitoes (≤12%).