Investigation of alphaviruses in hematophagous insects
Arboviruses are viral infections transmitted by arthropods (mosquitoes), caused by viruses of several genera, among them the Alphavirus, belonging to Togaviridae family. Among the species of alphavirus that affect the countries of the American continent and which are of medical importance, we have: the Mayaro Fever virus, the Chikungunya Fever virus and the Equine Encephalitis virus. Molecular biology is widely used as a method of viral isolation in vectors and among the diverse techniques available for the identification of arboviruses, the reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction (RT / PCR) is one of the most widely used. The most commonly used method of viral vector RNA extraction involves maceration of the insect, damaging the morphology and making it impossible to identify the vector. In order to integrate molecular and morphological studies, the enzymatic method of genetic material extraction in arthropods, developed by our research group, allows the identification of genetic material of pathological agents and vertebrate present in the insect, in addition to enabling morphological and molecular identification of the insect studied