How Does Wolbachia Block Dengue Virus Transmission?

Matthew Aliota, PhD, research scientist, University of Wisconsin, Pathobiological Sciences, explains how the mechanism behind how Wolbachia blocks Dengue virus transmission is not yet fully understood.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“How does Wolbachia block Dengue virus transmission? That’s a good question. No one’s really sure; the exact mechanism isn’t fully understood. We think it’s probably a combination of innate immune priming in the mosquito, but there are also maybe some other molecular and biological phenomena going on that we don’t fully understand, like the production of microRNAs. The exact mechanism might differ depending on the virus that you’re talking about, because Wolbachia also blocks transmission of Zika virus and chikungunya virus. So, we know for example, that Wolbachia is really good at sucking up all of the cholesterol in a cell, and Chikungunya virus requires lots of cholesterol to package its viral particle, and so, it might just be simply a competition for resources.”