It is quite possible that, at some point, you felt like you were the only target of mosquito In the circle of friends, for example. And it’s not just an impression, no. Mosquitoes have some preferences.
According to a recent study, odors expelled by your body may have led to this uncomfortable situation.
Amidst many speculations, in an attempt to explain the reason for this situation and still without reliable data on possible relationships, Leslie Fochal and Maria Elena de Obaldia, from the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University, researched one of the most important theories on the subject: Effect of individual odor associated with skin microbes.
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is what is called fatty acids (type of fat) stems from leather That creates a kind of perfume for mosquitoes. Because of the differences between the skins, some contain this “ingredient” in greater amounts than others.
In all, eight volunteers participated in the three-year study. Each wore nylon stockings on their forearms for several days over a period of six hours.
“There is a very strong association between having high amounts of these fatty acids in your skin and being an attractant for mosquitoes.”says Leslie, in a statement.
The two scientists also built an olfactory scale assay. It is a compartment (for mosquitoes) with an exit for two tubes – each ending in a box with a sock, to test which one attracts the attention of insects more.
In this room, researchers put mosquitoes Aedes aegypti which are vectors dengue feverAnd the yellow feverAnd the Zika And the Chikungunya. From there, they watched the way they flew through the tubes and the exit they chose.
“Theme 33”
Among the volunteers in the survey, one of the targets was the most attractive. Named “Theme 33”, the bugs rushed towards the sock he was wearing. Interestingly, the participant who was closer to subject 33 was still four times less attractive to mosquitoes.
When compared to the participant who at least caught the mosquito’s attention, classified as Subject 19, Subject 33 was 100 times more attractive than him.
Using chemical analysis techniques used to identify the molecular compounds of the skin’s moisture barrier, the scientists found that participants who were deemed to be highly attractive to mosquitoes produced carboxylic acids (used by bacteria to form everyone’s body odor) at significantly greater levels than the others.
The researchers then recruited 56 different people for a validation study. It follows Topic 33 as the most attractive to mosquitoes.
“A lot of things could have changed about the subject or their behaviors during that time, but that was a very stable characteristic of the person. Some of the subjects had been in the study for several years and we saw that if they were a mosquito magnet, they would still be a mosquito magnet,” Maria said.
new experience
From confirming the thesis that smell is responsible for enhancing the attractiveness of mosquitoes in some people, scientists conducted a new experiment. The goal, this time, was to understand the possibility of designing mosquitoes unable to detect humans, however, this was not successful.
“It was the goal [ter] A mosquito that lost all attractiveness to people, or a mosquito whose attractiveness was too weak for everyone and could not distinguish between Topic 19 and Topic 33. That would be massive,” Leslie points out.
The complete loss of gravity will allow the production of more effective mosquito repellents.
* With information from R7
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