INVESTIGATION OF ARBOVIRUSES OF MEDICAL IMPORTANCE AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE GUADELOUPE INSECT VIRUS IN HEMATOPHAGING DIPTERA FROM ABC PAULISTA
Arboviruses are diseases caused by a category of RNA viruses that are transmitted biologically by arthropods to vertebrate hosts. The arboviruses that cause diseases in humans and other animals are members of five viral families: Flaviviridae, Togaviridae, Bunyaviridae, Reoviridae and Rhabdoviridae. The detection of arboviruses in insect populations is important for the epidemiological surveillance of diseases such as Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, Zika, West Nile Fever, etc. Arboviruses interact with insect viruses, increasing or decreasing the transmission potential of arboviruses. Insect viruses are a diverse group of viruses that, due to their specificity and selectivity in relation to host insect species, have been studied as possible biological agents for the control of arthropod vectors of infectious diseases. Our research group identified for the first time in Brazil, the Guadeloupe insect virus, discovered in 2019, in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from the Caribbean region. In order to investigate the prevalence of arboviruses in insects from the ABC region and the prevalence of the Guadeloupe insect virus in populations of mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, this project aimed to detect Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, Mayaro and Guadeloupe viruses in mosquitoes collected in ABC Paulista, using the methodology of Reverse Transcription and conventional and real-time PCR. For this purpose, methods available in the literature for arboviruses were used, and for the detection of Guadeloupe, oligonucleotides complementary to the gene encoding the virus polymerase were designed. The results obtained from the analysis of 340 mosquitoes indicated the absence of the investigated arboviruses and a 60% prevalence of Guadeloupe virus in the Aedes population. Guadeloupe virus polymerase PCR fragments were subjected to sequencing by the Sanger method. With the sequences, it is possible to correlate the genetic variability of Guadeloupe with the population of mosquitoes of the genus Aedes.