Yibin ZHU

Approximately 17% of infectious diseases are caused by vector-borne diseases, posing a serious burden on global public health. However, the mechanisms of transmission of vector-borne diseases are still not fully understood, and there are no specific drugs or vaccines available for most of these diseases for treatment and prevention.

As an aspiring researcher in the field of mosquito-borne viruses, Yibin Zhu has been dedicated to understanding the molecular basis of the mosquito-virus-host-microbiota interaction.

He found that flaviviruses manipulate the host skin microbiota to enhance mosquito attraction and promote virus transmission; he also identified a novel symbiotic bacterium, Rosenbergiella_YN46, which blocks dengue virus transmission under semi-field conditions.

Yibin also elucidated how host blood influences the infection of mosquito-borne flaviviruses. Firstly, he discovered that mosquito blood-feeding activates the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling pathway, facilitating the virus to efficiently complete the 'host-to-mosquito' infection. Secondgly, he identified that the human serum iron is a key factor regulating the transmission of dengue virus by mosquitoes and proposed an anti-dengue transmission strategy based on iron supplementation. Thirdly, he revealed a cross-species regulatory mechanism mediated by host blood-derived miRNA that enhances dengue virus infection in mosquitoes. These findings provide biological evidence for the transmission of mosquito-borne flaviviruses by Aedes mosquitoes.

In the future, he will comprehensively elucidate how the four-component systems, including a virus, bacterial communities, invertebrate vectors, and vertebrate hosts, interact to regulate viral transmission. His long-term goal is to develop and apply strategies for commensal bacteria-based mosquito-borne viral biocontrol.