Mosquitoes are such dick . Not contented with just sucking your blood , these lank flying syringes will also pump their spittle into your eubstance as a way of life to bar your blood clotting and keep it course . It ’s your body ’s response to the saliva , not the blood suck , that causes the unbearable itchiness .
New research has found out how mosquito saliva produces an extremely “ unexpected ” and complex resistant response in the dead body , hinting at why mosquito bite can remain itchy for daylight , if not calendar week , at a time . Even more significantly , this breakthrough could explain how their saliva makes our bodies more at endangerment of mosquito - borne diseases such asyellow feverishness , Zika , and Dengue feverishness .
As reported in the journalPLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases , the shiner had an unusually long - live on and complicated resistant reply to the mozzie spit . Despite no infective agent being administered , the resistant response seem to go into hyperdrive .
" We regain that mosquito - delivered saliva induced a varied and complex resistant response we were not anticipating , " co - generator Dr Silke Paust , adjunct prof of pediatrics at Baylor and Texas Children ’s Hospital , suppose in astatement .
" For case , both the resistant cell response and the cytokine levels were affected . We see activation of T helper mobile phone 1 , which generally contribute to antiviral immunity , as well as activation of T assistant cells 2 , which have been linked to allergic reaction . "
If there is a virus or parasite present in the mosquito ’s spit , the immune organisation is also busy responding to the saliva with a complex allergic response , giving an infectious agent more of a fortune to get a foot in the door .
“ The virus present in that mosquito ’s spit , it ’s like a Trojan horse , ” Jessica Manning , an infectious disease physician , neatly explain toPopular Science . “ Your body is disorder by the spit [ and ] having an allergic chemical reaction when really it should be having an antiviral chemical reaction and fight against the computer virus . Your body is inadvertently helping the computer virus found infection because your immune system is station in new Wave of prison cell that this computer virus is able to taint . ”
The researchers are going to pick apart the 100 - plus protein in mosquito saliva to see how and why it has this effect on the immune system . In turn , the research could also help scientists work out how to prevent the gap of these nasty mosquito - transmitted tropic diseases .
