Attraction of the sandfly <i>Lutzomyia longipalpis</i> to possible biomarker compounds from dogs infected with <i>Leishmania infantum</i>

Magalhães-Junior, Jairo Torres; Oliva‐Filho, A. De A.; Novais, H. O.; Mesquita, Paulo Roberto Ribeiro; Rodrigues, Fernando; Pinto, Mara Cristina; Barrouin‐Melo, Stella Maria

doi:10.1111/mve.12357

“…In that study some of the compounds were found to activate upwind flight and to be marginally attractive to males. Female sand flies were activated but not attracted by the marker compounds [29]. The responses of both male and female Lu.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…It has been suggested that human odour-baited traps combined with insecticides could improve capture and kill of mosquito vectors [44][45][46] or cattle or pig odour could be useful for control of teste flies [47]. The observed sex specific increase in attraction to infected dogs, as well as the work of others [29], suggests that infected dog odour may also provide geographically generic opportunities to develop new vector control methods. Clearly control devices which successfully target females are much more likely to have a significant effect on disease transmission than devices that target males.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…It would be interesting to determine the response of Lu. longipalpis to the odours tested in this study over longer distance in a wind-tunnel [29] or by using mark-release-recapture experiments in a natural setting over significantly greater distances [42] to potentially reveal in more detail responses to and behaviour elicited by infected and uninfected odours.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Odour of domestic dogs infected with Leishmania infantum is attractive to female but not male sand flies: Evidence for parasite manipulation

Staniek

¹

,

Hamilton

²

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Globally visceral leishmaniasis (VL) causes thousands of human deaths every year. In South America, the etiologic agent, Leishmania infantum, is transmitted from an infected canine reservoir to human hosts by the bite of the sand fly vector; predominantly Lutzomyia longipalpis. Previous evidence from model rodent systems have suggested that the odour of infected hosts is altered by the parasite making them more attractive to the vector leading to an increased biting rate and improved transmission prospects for the pathogen. However, there has been no assessment of the effect of Le infantum infection on the attractiveness of dogs, which are the natural reservoirs for human infection. Hair collected from infected and uninfected dogs residing in a VL endemic city in Brazil was entrained to collect the volatile chemical odours present in the headspace. Female and male Lu. longipalpis sand flies were offered a choice of odour entrained from infected and uninfected dogs in a series of behavioural experiments. Odour of uninfected dogs was equally attractive to male or female Lu. longipalpis when compared to a solvent control. Female Lu. longipalpis were significantly more attracted to infected dog odour than uninfected dog odour in all 15 experimental replicates (average 45.7±0.87 females attracted to infected odour; 23.9±0.82 to uninfected odour; paired T-test, P = 0.000). Male Lu. longipalpis did not significantly prefer either infected or uninfected odour (average 36.1±0.4 males to infected odour; 35.7±0.6 to uninfected odour; paired T-test, P = 0.722). A significantly greater proportion of females chose the infected dog odour compared to the males (paired T-test, P = 0.000). The results showed that the odour of dogs infected with Le. infantum was significantly more attractive to blood-seeking female sand flies than it was to male sand flies. This is strong evidence for parasite manipulation of the host odour in a natural transmission system and indicates that infected dogs may have a disproportionate significance in maintaining infection in the canine and human population.

show abstract

“…Subsequently, 4 compounds identified as potential biomarkers of infection were tested in an olfactometer at either 50% or 100% concentration. In that study, the males were found to be more responsive than females in a wind tunnel olfactometer [28]. The response of both male and female Lu.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The key discriminatory volatile components identified by the PCA were characterised by conventional analytical methods [27] and in a behavioural study were found to be attractive albeit at very high concentrations (≥50% purity) predominantly to male Lu. longipalpis [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Odour of domestic dogs infected withLeishmania infantumis attractive to female but not male sand flies: evidence for parasite manipulation

Staniek

¹

,

Hamilton

²

2020

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Globally visceral leishmaniasis (VL) causes thousands of human deaths every year. In South America, the etiologic agent, Leishmania infantum, is transmitted from an infected canine reservoir to human hosts by the blood-feeding activity of the sand fly vector, predominantly, Lutzomyia longipalpis. Previous evidence from model rodent systems have suggested that the odour of infected hosts is altered by the parasite making them more attractive to the vector leading to an increased biting rate and improved transmission prospects for the pathogen. However, the effect of Le. infantum infection on the attractiveness of naturally infected dogs which are integral to human infection, has not been assessed.Hair collected from infected and uninfected dogs residing in a VL endemic city in Brazil. was entrained to collect the volatile chemical odours present in the headspace. Female and male Lu. longipalpis sand flies were offered a choice of infected or uninfected odour in a series of behavioural experiments. Control experiments established that female and male Lu. longipalpis were equally attracted to uninfected dog odour, female Lu. longipalpis were significantly more attracted to infected dog odour than uninfected dog odour in all 15 experimental replicates (average 45.7±0.87 females attracted to infected odour; 23.9±0.82 to uninfected odour; paired T-test, P=0.000). Male Lu. longipalpis did not significantly prefer either infected or uninfected odour (average 36.1±0.4 males to infected odour; 35.7±0.6 to uninfected odour; paired T-test, P=0.722). A significantly greater proportion of females chose the infected dog odour compared to the males (paired T-test, P=0.000).The results show that dogs infected with Le. infantum are significantly more attractive to blood-feeding female than male sand flies. This is strong evidence for parasite manipulation of the host odour in a natural transmission system and indicates that infected dogs may have a disproportionate significance in maintaining infection in canine and human infection.Author SummaryVisceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease caused by the Protist parasite Leishmania infantum. In Brazil and other South and Central American countries, the parasite is transmitted by the blood-feeding activity of infected female Lutzomyia longipalpis sand flies. The disease leads to thousands of human cases and deaths every year. Domestic dogs are the reservoir of infection for humans therefore understanding the effect of infection on dogs is important in developing an understanding of the epidemiology of the disease. Although previous studies on rodent models of Le. infantum infection have shown that infected Golden Hamsters are more attractive to Lu. longipalpis the attractiveness of naturally infected dogs to the insect vector has not been previously been investigated. In this study we showed that the odour of infected dogs is significantly more attractive to female sand flies which can transmit the pathogen than to male sand flies which do not. This clear-cut difference in attraction of female and males suggests that the females are preferentially attracted by parasite infected hosts and may lead to enhanced infection and transmission opportunities for the parasite.

show abstract

Attractiveness of golden hamster infected with Leishmania amazonensis (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) to laboratory-reared Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Silva,

Miguel,

Minori

et al. 2024

Acta Tropica

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Attraction of the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis to possible biomarker compounds from dogs infected with Leishmania infantum

Cited by 13 publications

References 18 publications

Odour of domestic dogs infected with Leishmania infantum is attractive to female but not male sand flies: Evidence for parasite manipulation

Odour of domestic dogs infected with Leishmania infantum is attractive to female but not male sand flies: Evidence for parasite manipulation

Odour of domestic dogs infected withLeishmania infantumis attractive to female but not male sand flies: evidence for parasite manipulation

Attractiveness of golden hamster infected with Leishmania amazonensis (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) to laboratory-reared Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About