Modeling the impact on virus transmission of Wolbachia-mediated blocking of @entity778 of XXXX .

@entity1 @entity778 @entity4224 @entity281 @entity1800 @entity779
Dengue is the most common @entity281 of @entity1 and is a public health burden in more than 100 countries. @entity4224 mosquitoes stably infected with strains of the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia are resistant to @entity778 and are being tested in field trials. To mimic field conditions, we experimentally assessed the vector competence of A. aegypti carrying the Wolbachia strains wMel and wMelPop after challenge with viremic blood from dengue @entity1 . We found that wMelPop conferred strong resistance to DENV @entity281 of mosquito abdomen tissue and largely prevented disseminated @entity281 . wMel conferred less resistance to @entity281 of mosquito abdomen tissue, but it did reduce the prevalence of mosquitoes with infectious saliva. A mathematical model of DENV transmission incorporating the dynamics of @entity1800 in @entity1 and mosquitoes was fitted to the data collected. Model predictions suggested that wMel would reduce the basic reproduction number, R0, of DENV transmission by 66 to 75%. Our results suggest that establishment of wMelPop-infected A. aegypti at a high frequency in a @entity779 would result in the complete abatement of DENV transmission. Establishment of wMel-infected A. aegypti is also predicted to have a substantial effect on transmission that would be sufficient to eliminate dengue in low or moderate transmission settings but may be insufficient to achieve complete control in settings where R0 is high. These findings develop a framework for selecting Wolbachia strains for field releases and for calculating their likely impact.
