AUTHOR=Santos Najara Akira Costa dos , Magi Felipe Neves , Andrade Alice Oliveira , Bastos Alessandra da Silva , Pereira Soraya dos Santos , Medeiros Jansen Fernandes , Araujo Maisa da Silva 

TITLE=Assessment of antibiotic treatment on Anopheles darlingi survival and susceptibility to Plasmodium vivax

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.971083

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.971083

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Antibiotic treatment has been used to enhance anopheline susceptibility to <italic>Plasmodium</italic> infection, because bacterial microbiota play a fundamental role in modulating the vector competence of mosquitoes that transmit <italic>Plasmodium</italic> parasites. However, few studies have examined the impact of antibiotic treatments on <italic>Plasmodium vivax</italic> sporogonic development in neotropical anopheline mosquitoes. Herein, we assessed the impact of antibiotic treatment on <italic>P. vivax</italic> development and survival in <italic>Anopheles darlingi</italic>, the main vector of malaria in the Amazon region. Female mosquitoes were treated continuously with antibiotics to impact the gut bacterial load and then tested for prevalence, infection intensity, and survival in comparison with untreated mosquitoes. Antibiotic-fed mosquitoes had not dramatic impact on <italic>P. vivax</italic> development previously observed in <italic>P. falciparum</italic>. However, antibiotic treatment increases mosquito survival, which is known to increase vectorial capacity. These findings raise questions about the effect of antibiotics on <italic>P. vivax</italic> development and survival in <italic>An. darlingi</italic>.</p>