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Many a pleasing summer’s evening continues to be ruined through the onset of swarms of mosquitoes, and studies have shown the flying pests are attracted to both the co2 we exhale and the scent of our skin.
New research, published in the journal Cell, finds that mosquitoes actually use the same olfactory mechanism to detect both co2 and skin odors.
“It had been a genuine surprise whenever we discovered that the mosquito’s CO2 receptor neuron, designated cpA, is definitely a sensitive detector of countless skin odorants too, and it is, actually, much more responsive to a few of these odor molecules when compared with CO2,” said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology at The University of California, Riverside. “For several years we’d primarily centered on the complex antennae of mosquitoes for the look for human-skin odor receptors, and ignored the simpler maxillary palp organs.”
To find out that cpA plays a role in detecting human odor, the researchers chemically shut down the activity of the receptor neuron in Aedes aegypti, a types of mosquito known to spread dengue fever. The researchers then looked to see the mosquito’s response to human foot odor and located their attraction was reduced, compared to a control group.
The research team also screened nearly half millions of compounds to recognize several that block and trigger cpA neurons. The researchers noted two chemicals particularly: ethyl pyruvate, a fruity-scented cpA blocker used as a flavor agent in food and cyclopentanone, a minty-smelling cpA trigger used as a flavor and fragrance agent. The cpA-inhibitor ethyl pyruvate was discovered to substantially decrease the mosquito’s attraction to a human arm. The cpA-trigger cyclopentanone, however, readily attracting mosquitoes to a trap set up through the study team.
“Such compounds can play a substantial role in the charge of mosquito-borne diseases and open up very realistic possibilities of developing uses of simple, natural, affordable and pleasant odors to prevent mosquitoes from finding humans,” Ray said. “Odors that block this dual-receptor for CO2 and skin odor can be used as a method to mask us from mosquitoes. However, odors that can act as attractants may be used to lure mosquitoes from us into traps.”
“These potentially affordable ‘mask’ and ‘pull’ strategies might be utilized in a complementary manner, offering an ideal solution and far needed relief to people in Africa, Asia and South usa C indeed wherever mosquito-borne diseases are endemic,” Ray added. “Further, these compounds might be developed into items that protect not merely one individual at any given time but larger areas, and need not need to be directly applied on the skin.”
Conventional mosquito traps use co2 to draw in mosquitoes, but generating the gas is expensive, cumbersome, and impractical in developing countries.
“The powerful experimental approaches we’ve developed will help us find potential solutions that we can use not only within the United States but also in Africa, Asia, and South usa, where affordability is key within the war against these diseases,” Ray concluded.
