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Q&A ViewAttendees 4

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad MUVE: Mosquitos, Biting Midges, and Flies

Ingested histamine alters critical vector transmission behaviors of Anopheles stephensi and infection success with Plasmodium species

Monday, November 1, 2021
8:48 AM – 9:00 AM MT
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room 503-504
In-Person Student Competition
Human malaria cases worldwide were estimated at 229 million with 409,000 deaths in 2019. Anopheles mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium species, the causative agents responsible for human malaria, making Anopheles behavior and infection susceptibility of great importance for transmission. In human malaria, severe disease associated with Plasmodium falciparum infection has been associated with allergic inflammation and circulating blood histamine concentrations up to 5-10 times above normal physiological levels. In this context, histamine would be delivered to mosquitoes in the blood meal, where it could function to modulate neuronal signaling in the insect host. To examine this possibility, we evaluated blood feeding behavior, flight activity and velocity, neurophysiological responses to vertebrate host stimuli, and lifespan in An. stephensi provisioned with histamine at normal blood levels and at levels consistent with severe malaria. Histamine was delivered using two different methods – via water-soaked cotton pads or via bloodmeal – in separate studies to determine the impact of ingested histamine on mosquito biology and infection with the mouse malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii or P. falciparum. Parasite infection success was assessed by counting midgut oocysts and salivary gland sporozoites in dissected An. stephensi. Our data showed that An. stephensi provisioned with histamine at levels associated with severe malaria exhibited behaviors and parasite infection success in patterns that could increase parasite transmission. Such knowledge is useful to connect clinical interventions to reduce allergic inflammation and severe human disease with novel interventions to manipulate histamine-related effects on mosquito biology and vector competence.