Study finds higher temperatures can make dengue virus more virulent
Dengue virus could become more virulent due to increasing temperatures, according to a study that could help in predicting and mitigating the severity and virulence of the recurring tropical disease that witnesses an outbreak in the monsoon. Researchers at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Kerala found that dengue becomes more severe and hostile in animal models when its virus (DENV) while being grown in mosquito-derived cells is exposed to higher temperatures.
The research, published recently in the FASEB journal, can help in predicting and mitigating the severity and virulence of dengue which has an estimated global disease burden of 390 million cases per year.
«Dengue being a mosquito-transmitted disease, the ability of the causative virus to grow in the cells of mosquito as well as in humans is a critical factor in viral virulence. The body temperature of mosquitoes is not constant as in higher animals and it increases or decreases with the environmental temperature,» said Easwaran Sreekumar, the team leader of the research from RGCB.
«So far it is not known whether the higher temperature growth condition will affect the virulence of the virus. For the first time, our recent study points out that there is such a possibility. DENV cultured at a higher temperature in mosquito cells was significantly more virulent than the virus grown at a lower temperature,» the researchers said.
The team of researchers at RGCB involved in the study includes Ayan Modak, Srishti Rajkumar Mishra, Mansi Awasthi, Sreeja Sreedevi, Archana Sobha, Arya Aravind, Krithiga Kuppusamy, and Sreekumar.
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