How Do EDCs Affect Viral Loads in Infected Mosquitoes?

Justin R. Anderson, PhD, associate professor of biology at Radford University, discusses how endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) affect viral loads in infected mosquitoes.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“In our study, we tested endocrine disrupting chemicals like [Bisphenol A] BPA against La Crosse virus replication in a mammalian cell to get an initial finding on what we can expect in an infected mosquito. We found that, as the course of the infection went on, the amount of virus that was produced increased after exposure to EDCs compared to cells that did not have endocrine disrupters. So, we don’t know [the] mechanism [that’s] going on inside those cells, but we see more virus being produced in cells that are infected after they’ve been exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals.”