Susceptibility of Midge and Mosquito Vectors to SARS-CoV-2
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Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is a recently emerged, highly contagious virus and the cause of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is a zoonotic virus, although its animal origin is not clear yet. Person-to-person transmission occurs by inhalation of infected droplets and aerosols, or by direct contact with contaminated fomites. Arthropods transmit numerous viral, parasitic, and bacterial diseases; however, the potential role of arthropods in SARS-CoV-2 transmission is not fully understood. Thus far, a few studies have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 replication is not supported in cells from certain insect species nor in certain species of mosquitoes after intrathoracic inoculation. In this study, we expanded the work of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility to biting insects after ingesting a SARS-CoV-2-infected bloodmeal. Species tested included Culicoides sonorensis (Wirth & Jones) (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) biting midges, as well as Culex tarsalis (Coquillett) and Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), all known biological vectors for numerous RNA viruses. Arthropods were allowed to feed on SARS-CoV-2-spiked blood and at a time point postinfection analyzed for the presence of viral RNA and infectious virus. Additionally, cell lines derived from C. sonorensis (W8a), Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) (Diptera: Culicidae) (C6/36), Cx. quinquefasciatus (HSU), and Cx. tarsalis (CxTrR2) were tested for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility. Our results indicate that none of the biting insects, nor the insect cell lines evaluated support SARS-CoV-2 replication, suggesting that these species are unable to be biological vectors of SARS-CoV-2.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.29.317289: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Adult female C. sonorensis (n=200) midges were allowed to feed on defibrinated sheep blood mixed 1:1 (v/v) with SARS-CoV-2 (2.0 x 106 Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources The W8a, CxTrR2, HSU, and C6/36 cells were maintained in CuVa medium, L-15 medium (with 10% tryptose phosphate broth) and Medium 199H, respectively. C6/36suggested: NoneArthropod homogenates (100 μl) were added on to VeroE6 cells in 24 well plates and incubated at 37°C and 5% CO2 for 3 days. VeroE6suggested: JCRB Cat# …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.29.317289: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Adult female C. sonorensis (n=200) midges were allowed to feed on defibrinated sheep blood mixed 1:1 (v/v) with SARS-CoV-2 (2.0 x 106 Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources The W8a, CxTrR2, HSU, and C6/36 cells were maintained in CuVa medium, L-15 medium (with 10% tryptose phosphate broth) and Medium 199H, respectively. C6/36suggested: NoneArthropod homogenates (100 μl) were added on to VeroE6 cells in 24 well plates and incubated at 37°C and 5% CO2 for 3 days. VeroE6suggested: JCRB Cat# JCRB1819, RRID:CVCL_YQ49)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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