The scientists also identified a potential way to block the scent and stop the spread of the disease using a medication already known to people struggling with acne.
The new study discovered a previously unknown step in the spread of Zika and dengue. These infections can change the way a person smells, and this scent makes them more attractive to mosquitoes, meaning they’re more likely to be bitten. For now, it’s unclear whether or not this process is the result of evolution or chance, Wang said.
The scientists also recruited dengue fever patients from a hospital in China and healthy volunteers. They collected the volunteers’ odors through armpit swabs and then extracted and transferred the compounds causing those smells to a piece of filter paper. Then a new seemingly unpleasant experiment began: A paper with the scent of either a healthy or infected person was attached to a volunteer’s hand, while an odorless paper was attached to their other hand.
When the researchers evaluated the skin of the study participants, they found that the dengue patients showed a much higher emission of acetophenone than the other participants. Meanwhile, mice infected with Zika or dengue also produced 10 times more acetophenone than healthy mice. Scent remained the primary driver of mosquito bites even after scientists controlled for other attractants, like body heat and levels of carbon dioxide.
Because mouse skin is different than human skin, the team now wants to see whether the same treatment would work for people. They also want to expand the study more generally and evaluate more human patients with dengue and Zika — this study only included 10 dengue patients. An effort is underway to recreate this study with a large sample of people in Malaysia.
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