LAUSR

Insect-borne diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, such as malaria, dengue, Zika, and lymphatic filariasis, remain among the most prevalent infectious diseases worldwide [1]. For example, the incidence of dengue infection has increased significantly in recent decades to more than 390 million cases per year, of which 96 million have clinical manifestations [2]. At the same time, the remarkable progress in malaria control programs has now staggered, and, in 2021, Plasmodium falciparum malaria incidence increased to more than 600,000 deaths [3]. While the deployment of insecticide-based strategies dramatically reduced the toll of insect-borne diseases in several regions, it resulted in widespread insecticide resistance in natural populations [4]. Thus, the development of new strategies to reduce disease transmission is greatly needed. The immune response of an insect vector against a pathogen is a major determinant of vector competence, defined as the ability of a vector to transmit disease. Insect immunity is regulated by several different signaling pathways such as the JNK, JAK-STAT, Toll, IMD, and RNAi, which activate final effectors that limit pathogen development and replication [5,6]. Thus, immune priming and other mechanisms of immune memory that result in long-term enhancement of mosquito immunity have gained attention as important mechanisms to reduce disease transmission [7]. Here, we review recent discoveries on the molecular mechanisms mediating insect immune priming and its possible role in modulating the transmission of vector-borne diseases.