West Nile virus was recently detected in mosquitoes in DeKalb County. Mosquito-borne illnesses kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. Some historians believe they’ve killed about half of all humans who have ever lived. One NIU professor received a grant to learn about a big unknown: what bacteria these insects carry.
Shicheng Chen’s lab received a $40,000 grant from the Illinois Innovation Network. His lab is studying the relationship between mosquitoes and environmental microorganisms.
They’re specifically investigating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is a rising public health threat, especially in healthcare settings. They've found that some of the bacteria in mosquitoes have antimicrobial resistance genes, or AMR genes, which allow bacteria to survive exposure to antibiotics.
"Some of these bacteria," Chen said, "carry the AMR genes that are nearly identical to those found in the hospital or in the clinic setting."
Chen’s lab has collected mosquitoes in local areas, including DeKalb, Sycamore, Rockford and Kane and Lee Counties, and they hope to collect more mosquitoes using funds from the grant.
The grant will support Chen's lab as they continue to survey mosquitoes.
"We can monitor mosquitoes," Chen said, "and then we will actually carefully look at what kind of bacteria they carry. We will detail the emerging potential and the resistant genes much earlier."
He says we already know mosquitoes carry a ton of viruses and parasites, but we don’t always know what bacteria they’re carrying, how the microbial communities change across environments, or which bacteria could impact human health.
He says because mosquitoes spend different parts of their life cycles in water and on land, their microbiome can offer a snapshot of the bigger ecosystem.
He also says learning more about a mosquito’s bacteria can prepare us for future risks to human health.
