Background: During blood feeding, the mosquito injects saliva into the vertebrate host. This saliva contains bioactive components which may play a role in pathogen transmission and in host-vector relationships by inducing an immune response in the vertebrate host. The evaluation of human immune responses to arthropod bites might also represent a research direction for assessing individual exposure to the bite of a malaria vector.
Methods: The present study examined the antibody (Ab) IgG response during the season of exposure to Anopheles gambiae bites in young children living in a malaria endemic area. Immunoblots were performed with An. gambiae saliva to detect anti-saliva Ab bands and the evolution of immunogenic bands at the peak of, and following, the transmission period.
Results: The results showed that anti-Anopheles Ab was directed against a limited number of salivary proteins (175, 115, 72 and 30 kDa bands). Specific IgG responses to mosquito salivary proteins were variable among exposed individuals; nevertheless, two major bands (175 and 72 kDa) were observed in all immune-responder children. Analysis of the intensity of immunogenic bands revealed that IgG levels against the 175 kDa band were significantly higher during the peak period compared to the end period malaria transmission.
Conclusion: This preliminary work supports the potential of using anti-saliva immune responses as a measure of exposure to Anopheles bites. The use of immunoblots coupled with evaluation of band intensity could be an adequate tool for distinguishing immunogenic salivary proteins as candidate markers of bite exposure. Furthermore, this study may open the way to design new epidemiological tools for evaluating the risk of malaria exposure.