Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Mar 29;12(3):e0006247.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006247. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Taking a bite out of nutrition and arbovirus infection

James Weger-Lucarelli  1 , Heidi Auerswald  2 , Marco Vignuzzi  1 , Phillipe Dussart  2 , Erik A Karlsson  2
Affiliations
Review

Taking a bite out of nutrition and arbovirus infection

James Weger-Lucarelli et al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. .

Abstract

Nutrition is a key factor in host-pathogen defense. Malnutrition can increase both host susceptibility and severity of infection through a number of pathways, and infection itself can promote nutritional deterioration and further susceptibility. Nutritional status can also strongly influence response to vaccination or therapeutic pharmaceuticals. Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) have a long history of infecting humans, resulting in regular pandemics as well as an increasing frequency of autochthonous transmission. Interestingly, aside from host-related factors, nutrition could also play a role in the competence of vectors required for transmission of these viruses. Nutritional status of the host and vector could even influence viral evolution itself. Therefore, it is vital to understand the role of nutrition in the arbovirus lifecycle. This Review will focus on nutritional factors that could influence susceptibility and severity of infection in the host, response to prophylactic and therapeutic strategies, vector competence, and viral evolution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Influence of nutrition on the arbovirus vector–host cycle.
Growth and development of mosquitoes as well as several pathways (epizootic, enzootic, and urban epidemic) could be impacted by the nutrition of both the host and the vector species. Red stars indicate areas where nutrition could have the most impact on susceptibility, severity of infection, and even vector competence.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Correlation of malnutrition with reported distributions of arboviruses.
Prevalence (by percent) of children under the age of 5 that are (A) underweight for their age, (B) wasted, or (C) stunted are shown in blue. Data are the most recent statistics for each country indicated available from the United Nations Children’s Fund (available at http://data.unicef.org) and were mapped using QGIS 2.18.12. Overlay colors indicate reported distributions of DENV (light red shading), YFV (pink border), CHIKV (orange border), ZIKV (yellow border), JEV (green border), and RVFV (purple border). Distributions are adapted from Weaver et al. 2017 [214]. CHIKV, chikungunya virus; DENV, dengue virus; JEV, Japanese encephalitis virus; RVFV, Rift Valley Fever virus; YFV, yellow fever virus; ZIKV, Zika virus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Katona P, Katona-Apte J. The Interaction between Nutrition and Infection. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2008;46(10):1582–8. doi: 10.1086/587658 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Fact Sheet 311: Obesity 2016 [cited 2017 July 31]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.
    1. World Health Organization. Fact sheet: Malnutrition 2017 [cited 2017 31 July]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/malnutrition/en/.
    1. Chapman IM. Nutritional Disorders in the Elderly. Medical Clinics of North America. 2006;90(5):887–907. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2006.05.010 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Disease Control Priorities Project. Eliminating Malnutrition Could Reduce Poor Countries’ Disease Burden by One-Third. 2007.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources