New synthetic skin may unlock secrets of mosquito feeding

Mosquitoes feed on synthetic skin that is infused with blood. This design makes it easier for researchers to study disease transmission. (Image by Tulane University)

Use your vacuum cleaner to catch mosquitoes one by one and release them into a clear plastic box. After taking some time to acclimate to the new environment, the mosquitoes will smell the blood and swarm the source.

However, instead of finding creatures to feast on, they begin to hum and feed on scarlet blood vessels that flow beneath small squares of transparent synthetic skin.

This is not science fiction, but Research partnership A gelatin-like patch of fake skin called a hydrogel, between Tulane University and Rice University, is a future study of how mosquitoes transmit deadly diseases and which repellents are most effective. Hydrogels eliminate the need for human and animal testing to answer such questions.

“This is a big game changer. If we can study how they (mosquitoes) feed and what they do in the process of feeding, we can better understand their potential to transmit disease. ”

Dawn Wesson

Hydrogels are already in use at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where more than 1,000 mosquitoes a week are 3D printed to create hydrogels at the Insectarium. Bioengineers at Rice University developed a hydrogel material and machine learning software that analyzes videos of mosquito feeding to identify patterns.

of New research published in The forefront of bioengineering and biotechnologyfound that hydrogels created a more consistent environment for mosquito testing regardless of species. In testing, both DEET and a plant-based repellent made from lemon eucalyptus oil repelled mosquitoes Mosquitoes eagerly ate the hydrogel without the repellent.

“This is a big game changer,” he said Dawn Wesson, Associate Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “If we could study how they (mosquitoes) eat and what they do in the feeding process, we could better understand their potential to transmit disease, and perhaps stop eating. .”

Besides being a nuisance, mosquitoes are probably the most dangerous animals in the world. They are carriers of deadly diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika and yellow fever. About 725,000 people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases, according to the World Health Organization. World Health Organization.

Studying mosquito feeding has long been a challenge, as the use of live mice and humans can be costly and inconsistent. Being able to efficiently produce hydrogels with different vascular patterns has dramatically improved our ability to study the mechanisms of disease transmission and test new types of repellents, Wesson said. says. Each test chamber is equipped with a camera that records the feeding patterns of mosquitoes. We use artificial intelligence to track and categorize common bite locations and how long it takes to feed.

Mosquito saliva is thought to play an important role in disease transmission, but the process remains questionable.

“If we could study that process in a more detailed way without using animals, we might be able to block transmission, and that would have a huge impact,” Wesson said. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what can be done with

Omid Veiseh is the study’s lead author and assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University. George R. Brown School of Engineeringthe hydrogel system could be scaled up to test or discover new repellents, study mosquito behavior more broadly, and open the door to laboratory testing that previously could not afford it. .

“It provides a consistent and controlled method of observation,” said Veiseh. “We hope that researchers will be able to use it to identify ways to prevent the spread of disease in the future.”

Dawn Wesson, associate professor of tropical medicine at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, explains how hydrogel systems can help researchers learn more about mosquito feeding behavior and disease transmission. (Video by Derek Bridges)