Reduced competence to arboviruses following the sustainable invasion of Wolbachia into native Aedes aegypti from Southeastern Brazil

Gesto, João Silveira Moledo; Ribeiro, Gabriel Sylvestre; Rocha, Marcele Neves; Peixoto, Julia; Carvalho, Fabiano Duarte; Pereira, Thiago Nunes; Moreira, Luciano Andrade

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89409-8

Cited by 37 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Corroborating the Australian findings, recent trials in Indonesia ( Tantowijoyo et al, 2020 ) and Southeastern Brazil ( Garcia et al, 2019 ; Gesto et al, 2021 ) have also reported the successful invasion and establishment of w Mel at some localities, with preliminary evidence of arboviral disease reduction ( Durovni et al, 2020 ; Indriani et al, 2020 ; Pinto et al, 2021 ). In the particular context of Southeastern Brazil, trials have initially targeted small neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro and the nearby city Niterói, following adult ( Garcia et al, 2019 ) or egg deployment methods ( Gesto et al, 2021 ). With high w Mel frequencies, and DENV and ZIKV refractoriness maintained intact over the post-release period ( Gesto et al, 2021 ), additional areas of both cities could be considered for Wolbachia implementation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…In the particular context of Southeastern Brazil, trials have initially targeted small neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro and the nearby city Niterói, following adult ( Garcia et al, 2019 ) or egg deployment methods ( Gesto et al, 2021 ). With high w Mel frequencies, and DENV and ZIKV refractoriness maintained intact over the post-release period ( Gesto et al, 2021 ), additional areas of both cities could be considered for Wolbachia implementation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large-Scale Deployment and Establishment of Wolbachia Into the Aedes aegypti Population in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

et al. 2021

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Traditional methods of vector control have proven insufficient to reduce the alarming incidence of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya in endemic countries. The bacterium symbiont Wolbachia has emerged as an efficient pathogen-blocking and self-dispersing agent that reduces the vectorial potential of Aedes aegypti populations and potentially impairs arboviral disease transmission. In this work, we report the results of a large-scale Wolbachia intervention in Ilha do Governador, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. wMel-infected adults were released across residential areas between August 2017 and March 2020. Over 131 weeks, including release and post-release phases, we monitored the wMel prevalence in field specimens and analyzed introgression profiles of two assigned intervention areas, RJ1 and RJ2. Our results revealed that wMel successfully invaded both areas, reaching overall infection rates of 50–70% in RJ1 and 30–60% in RJ2 by the end of the monitoring period. At the neighborhood-level, wMel introgression was heterogeneous in both RJ1 and RJ2, with some profiles sustaining a consistent increase in infection rates and others failing to elicit the same. Correlation analysis revealed a weak overall association between RJ1 and RJ2 (r = 0.2849, p = 0.0236), and an association at a higher degree when comparing different deployment strategies, vehicle or backpack-assisted, within RJ1 (r = 0.4676, p < 0.0001) or RJ2 (r = 0.6263, p < 0.0001). The frequency knockdown resistance (kdr) alleles in wMel-infected specimens from both areas were consistently high over this study. Altogether, these findings corroborate that wMel can be successfully deployed at large-scale as part of vector control intervention strategies and provide the basis for imminent disease impact studies in Southeastern Brazil.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-Scale Deployment and Establishment of Wolbachia Into the Aedes aegypti Population in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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“…A likely contributing factor is that these scaled deployments have largely used adult mosquitoes released from vehicles, which does not deliver as spatially homogeneous a deployment as occurred previously in Indonesia and Australia. In contrast, the small-scale pilot releases in the Jurujuba neighbourhood of Niterói in 2015 achieved rapid and sustained introgression of wMel after 8-31 weeks of egg-based releases [20]. Additionally, Niterói release areas were complex urban environments with high rise areas and large informal settlements, where field activities were frequently interrupted by security issues and where physical barriers to spread [30], spatial heterogeneity in mosquito abundance [31], and limited mosquito dispersal [32] could have contributed to slower wMel introgression.…”

Section: Plos Neglected Tropical Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…aegypti line described in Garcia et al 2019 [23] was used for releases. The wMel-infected lines were maintained in controlled laboratory conditions, in 900 Release zone 1 includes the Jurujuba neighbourhood where pilot releases were conducted in 2015-16 [20], for all metrics except 'Estimated mosquitoes released' which includes only the expanded releases in zone 1 beginning in February 2017; the month that BG traps were first installed in zone 1 also excludes the pilot release period.…”

Section: Mosquito Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pilot releases of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes started in 2014 in Rio de Janeiro and in 2015 in Niterói, Brazil, and achieved successful establishment of Wolbachia throughout the two small pilot site communities, each with a population of 2500-2800 people [19,20]. In 2017 Niterói became the first site in Brazil to move to scaled deployments across a large urban area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effectiveness of Wolbachia-infected mosquito deployments in reducing the incidence of dengue and other Aedes-borne diseases in Niterói, Brazil: A quasi-experimental study

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Background The introduction of the bacterium Wolbachia (wMel strain) into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reduces their capacity to transmit dengue and other arboviruses. Evidence of a reduction in dengue case incidence following field releases of wMel-infected Ae. aegypti has been reported previously from a cluster randomised controlled trial in Indonesia, and quasi-experimental studies in Indonesia and northern Australia. Methodology/Principal findings Following pilot releases in 2015–2016 and a period of intensive community engagement, deployments of adult wMel-infected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were conducted in Niterói, Brazil during 2017–2019. Deployments were phased across four release zones, with a total area of 83 km2 and a residential population of approximately 373,000. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of wMel deployments in reducing dengue, chikungunya and Zika incidence. An untreated control zone was pre-defined, which was comparable to the intervention area in historical dengue trends. The wMel intervention effect was estimated by controlled interrupted time series analysis of monthly dengue, chikungunya and Zika case notifications to the public health surveillance system before, during and after releases, from release zones and the control zone. Three years after commencement of releases, wMel introgression into local Ae. aegypti populations was heterogeneous throughout Niterói, reaching a high prevalence (>80%) in the earliest release zone, and more moderate levels (prevalence 40–70%) elsewhere. Despite this spatial heterogeneity in entomological outcomes, the wMel intervention was associated with a 69% reduction in dengue incidence (95% confidence interval 54%, 79%), a 56% reduction in chikungunya incidence (95%CI 16%, 77%) and a 37% reduction in Zika incidence (95%CI 1%, 60%), in the aggregate release area compared with the pre-defined control area. This significant intervention effect on dengue was replicated across all four release zones, and in three of four zones for chikungunya, though not in individual release zones for Zika. Conclusions/Significance We demonstrate that wMel Wolbachia can be successfully introgressed into Ae. aegypti populations in a large and complex urban setting, and that a significant public health benefit from reduced incidence of Aedes-borne disease accrues even where the prevalence of wMel in local mosquito populations is moderate and spatially heterogeneous. These findings are consistent with the results of randomised and non-randomised field trials in Indonesia and northern Australia, and are supportive of the Wolbachia biocontrol method as a multivalent intervention against dengue, chikungunya and Zika.

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Wolbachia-carrying Aedes mosquitoes for preventing dengue infection

Fox,

Sguassero,

Chaplin

et al. 2024

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

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Background Dengue is a global health problem of high significance, with 3.9 billion people at risk of infection. The geographic expansion of dengue virus (DENV) infection has resulted in increased frequency and severity of the disease, and the number of deaths has increased in recent years. Wolbachia , an intracellular bacterial endosymbiont, has been under investigation for several years as a novel dengue‐control strategy. Some dengue vectors ( Aedes mosquitoes) can be transinfected with specific strains of Wolbachia, which decreases their fitness (ability to survive and mate) and their ability to reproduce, inhibiting the replication of dengue. Both laboratory and field studies have demonstrated the potential effect of Wolbachia deployments on reducing dengue transmission, and modelling studies have suggested that this may be a self‐sustaining strategy for dengue prevention, although long‐term effects are yet to be elucidated. Objectives To assess the efficacy of Wolbachia ‐carrying Aedes species deployments (specifically w Mel ‐ , w MelPop ‐ , and w AlbB‐ strains of Wolbachia ) for preventing dengue virus infection. Search methods We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, four other databases, and two trial registries up to 24 January 2024. Selection criteria Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), including cluster‐randomized controlled trials (cRCTs), conducted in dengue endemic or epidemic‐prone settings were eligible. We sought studies that investigated the impact of Wolbachia‐ carrying Aedes deployments on epidemiological or entomological dengue‐related outcomes, utilizing either the population replacement or population suppression strategy. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently selected eligible studies, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool. We used odds ratios (OR) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) as the effect measure for dichotomous outcomes. For count/rate outcomes, we planned to use the rate ratio with 95% CI as the effect measure. We used adjusted measures of effect for cRCTs. We assessed the certainty of evidence using GRADE. Main results One completed cRCT met our inclusion criteria, and we identified two further ongoing cRCTs. The included trial was conducted in an urban setting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It utilized a nested test‐negative study design, whereby all participants aged three to 45 years who presented at healthcare centres with a fever were enrolle...

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Reduced competence to arboviruses following the sustainable invasion of Wolbachia into native Aedes aegypti from Southeastern Brazil

Cited by 37 publications

References 69 publications

Large-Scale Deployment and Establishment of Wolbachia Into the Aedes aegypti Population in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Large-Scale Deployment and Establishment of Wolbachia Into the Aedes aegypti Population in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Effectiveness of Wolbachia-infected mosquito deployments in reducing the incidence of dengue and other Aedes-borne diseases in Niterói, Brazil: A quasi-experimental study

Wolbachia-carrying Aedes mosquitoes for preventing dengue infection

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