Research Article Sialic Acid Expression in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti and Its Possible Role in Dengue Virus-Vector Interactions

Copyright © 2015 Jorge Cime-Castillo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dengue fever (DF) is the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral disease which affects humans. DF is caused by the four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes, which are transmitted to the host by the mosquito Aedes aegypti that has key roles in DENV infection, replication, and viral transmission (vector competence). Mosquito saliva also plays an important role during DENV transmission. In this study, we detected the presence of sialic acid (Sia) inAedes aegypti tissues, which may have an important role during DENV-vector competence. We also identified genome sequences encoding enzymes involved in Sia pathways.The cDNA forAedes aegypti CMP-Sia synthase (CSAS) was amplified, cloned, and functionally evaluated via the complementation of LEC29.Lec32 CSAS-deficient CHO cells. AedesCSAS-transfected LEC29.Lec32 cells were able to express Sia moieties on the cell surface. Sequences related t