Exposure to mosquitoes, Aedes togoi (Theo.), induces and augments opioid-mediated analgesia in mice

Abstract

Mosquitoes and other biting flies are natural aversive stimuli commonly encountered by wild and domestic animals and by humans. We observed that male mice exposed for 30 min to a low density of female mosquitoes (Aedes togoi) displayed significant increases in nociceptive responses which were indicative of the induction of analgesia. This analgesia was blocked by the prototypic opiate antagonist naloxone (1.0 mg/kg). Exposure to a novel stimulus had no significant effect on nociception, whereas 30 min of restraint stress induced a naloxone-reversible analgesia qualitatively similar to that observed after exposure to mosquitoes. Confinement in a small chamber for 30 min also had a significant analgesic effect whose amplitude and duration were markedly potentiated by concurrent exposure to mosquitoes. These results show that exposure to mosquitoes, and likely other biting flies, both induces an opioid-mediated analgesia and augments the analgesic effects of other stressful stimuli.