LAUSR

Significance An increasingly important group of infectious agents is viruses spread by mosquitoes. When infected mosquitoes bite people, they inject virus and saliva into the skin. The saliva is biologically active and helps the mosquito feed but also helps the virus to infect and replicate. Sialokinin is a peptide in mosquito saliva that is unique within the insect world as having vertebrate-like tachykinin function, which can be proinflammatory. We show that sialokinin increases blood vessel permeability, allowing an influx of virus-permissive cells. Increasing the frequency of these cells in skin provides more opportunities for the virus to replicate. Inhibiting mosquito salivary factors holds promise as a panviral strategy for reducing disease burden caused by a wide variety of mosquito-borne viruses.