EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF SYMBIOTIC AND APOSYMBIOTIC, CULEX PIPIENS MOSQUITOES IN THE TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV)

HASSAN, MOSTAFA I.; MOHAMMED, ALY F.; HAMMAD, KOTB M.; GABARTY, A.; SELIM, THARWAT A.

doi:10.12816/0050449

EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF SYMBIOTIC AND APOSYMBIOTIC, CULEX PIPIENS MOSQUITOES IN THE TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.

² VACSERA, Giza, Egypt.

³ Department of Natural Products, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology, Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt.

10.12816/0050449

Abstract

The present study evaluated the potential role of Culex pipiens mosquitoes in the transmission of HCV, post being fed on an infected blood with a viral load of 1.3x106IU/ml.in symbiotic mosquitoes and 1.2x106IU/ml.in aposymbiotic one. Mouth parts, mid-gut and salivary glands in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic mosquitoes at different time intervals were tested for evaluation of viral load using real-time PCR for up to 60min and up to 5, 13 day in case of mouth parts, mid-gut and salivary glands respectively. It was observed that the viral load was decreased by increasing the time post feeding in mid-gut and mouth parts in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic mosquitoes so, there is a negative relationship between the HCV load and feeding time. On the other hand, HCV was not detected in salivary glands in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic mosquitoes during the period of detection. The results showed that the mechanical transmission through mouth parts in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic mosquitoes are plausible, while biological transmission through symbiotic and aposymbiotic mosquitoes did not occur.

Keywords