Platform for Studying How Arthropod Bites Transmit Disease

Abstract

The University of Central Florida invention is a biomaterial platform that provides engineered human or animal skin-like constructs for studying the biting or blood-feeding behaviors of arthropods, such as mosquitoes and spiders. Many mosquito species are important vectors of parasitic diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and Zika. Yet, due to a lack of pertinent assay systems, their biting/blood-feeding behavior and those of other medically relevant arthropods, such as ticks, need to be better understood. For example, little is known about their preferred human skin condition, the selection of landing site and biting site on human skin, the number of feeding attempts, and the quantity consumed during feedings. As a result, scientists often sacrifice their skin, allowing the insects to bite them in laboratory settings and manually recording the score of experimental outcomes. Such methods have limitations, including the number and type of experiments and the inability to use infected mosquitoes.

Called biologic interfacial tissue-engineered systems (BITES), the UCF technology resolves such issues, enabling 3D model skin tissue made from an alginate gel that scientists can fill with solutions that arthropods feed on, such as blood, serum and sugar. The tissues can be cellularized with human or animal cells or used alone for studying arthropod biting and blood-feeding. In addition, the BITES model can be used to test the effectiveness of various substances like repellents or insecticides.

Technical Details

The UCF invention (BITES) comprises an arthropod bite model and methods for making the model. BITES is a platform of multiple microtubular capillaries made from a gel or alginate gel. The capillaries can be of different sizes, ranging between 10 µm and 300 µm, and can be cellularized and filled with a cell culture medium, serum or body fluid such as blood.

One embodiment is Capgel for BITES, a platform for studying the behavior of mosquitoes. Capgel for BITES is a scaffold of densely packed parallel micro-capillary structures which enable robust cell seeding, growth, and colonization, including micro-vascularization under laboratory cell culture conditions. Experimental results showed that when Capgel for BITES capillaries are cellularized with cultured human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) and loaded with human red blood cells, the structures attracted more mosquitoes than blood-loaded non-cellularized Capgels. Thus, the scaffold can imitate the human skin condition.

Other cell types (human or animal) can also be used, such as mesenchymal stem cells, keratinocytes, immune cells, and umbilical vein endothelial cells. Examples of immune cells include macrophages, either tissue-resident or derived from infiltration of monocytes, or dendritic cells.

Partnering Opportunity

The research team is seeking partners for licensing, research collaboration, or both.

Stage of Development

Prototype available.

Benefit

Market Application