Effects of ingested vertebrate-derived factors on insect immune responses.
During the process of blood feeding insect vectors are exposed to an array of vertebrate-derived blood factors ranging from byproducts of blood meal digestion to naturally occurring products in the blood including growth hormones, cytokines and factors derived from blood-borne pathogens themselves. In this review, we examine the ability of these ingested vertebrate blood factors to alter the innate pathogen defenses of insect vectors. The ability of these factors to modify the immune responses of insect vectors offers new intriguing targets for blocking or reducing transmission of human disease-causing pathogens.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California, 95616.
Nazzy
N
Pakpour
Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721.
Michael A
MA
Riehle
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California, 95616.
Shirley
S
Luckhart
Leishmania; Plasmodium; Reduviidae; chitinase; complement; insulin; insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1); mosquito; sand fly; transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β); tsetse fly