Discovery in Mosquitoes Could Lead to New Strategy Against Mosquito-Borne Viruses

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have made an important finding about Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Ae. aegypti mosquitoes do not succumb to dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other harmful viruses when infected and continue to move and feed normally, passing their viral cargoes on to humans.

In the new study, researchers examined the role of Argonaute 2 (Ago2), a protein that in mosquitoes serves as part of an important antiviral mechanism known as the small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway, which works by recognizing and destroying viral RNAs. Read more from Johns Hopkins here.