Scientists on the verge of a big discovery: Are mosquitoes more likely to bite people infected with viruses?
As much as we love summer, we would probably all agree that it would be much nicer without the many insects that appear during the warm part of the year.
Have you ever wondered why mosquitoes they like to bite some people, while others are not attracted to them at all? There are a number of reasons why some people are more susceptible to mosquito bites than others, and new evidence points to another reason people may not have been aware of before.
They are attracted to the smell that certain viruses produce in the body
A new study found that mosquitoes were attracted to the odors emitted by mice infected with the parasite that causes malaria. The research team is still investigating whether the same happens in humans. Since this virus is transmitted precisely by a mosquito bite, the question arises: Do people infected with a virus emit smells that are particularly attractive to these little pests? That's what the team wanted to find out.
"I think the infection just increases the chances of the mosquito locating you," Penghua Wang, an immunologist at the University of Connecticut in the US, told NPR. Wang and the rest of his team decided to find out if it was true that infected people become targets for mosquitoes and conducted a study that was recently published in the journal Cell.
The experiments involved two groups of mice that were given two different types of air, one of which was full of viruses. As expected, mosquitoes buzzed around the infected mice.
"The malaria virus can change a person's body odor, making them more attractive to mosquitoes," Wang said. "The virus changes the microbiome of the skin to make it more attractive to tiny blood-sucking creatures," Wang said, saying he was excited by the new discovery because it could shed light on how mosquitoes transmit the virus.
Although this is a very positive outlook, it is important to remember that experimentation on mice is not the same as experimentation on humans. However, the study also found that people infected with dengue fever become more attractive to mosquitoes.
What can these discoveries bring?
After discovering the cause of the attraction, they also found a possible treatment plan. When sick mice were given vitamin A, the mosquitoes lost interest in them. This information can help researchers figure out how some viruses spread. According to Wang, in some areas where they attack people intensively, many residents suffer from vitamin A deficiency.
