# Current Insights into Superinfection Exclusion in Insect-Specific Orthoflaviviruses

## TL;DR

This review explores how insect-specific flaviviruses can prevent mosquito infections by human-pathogenic viruses, offering potential for controlling disease transmission.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of superinfection exclusion mechanisms and potential biocontrol applications of insect-specific flaviviruses.

## Key findings

- Insect-specific flaviviruses like Palm Creek and Binjari viruses can suppress subsequent infections by human-pathogenic flaviviruses in mosquitoes.
- Superinfection exclusion is being studied for its potential use in biocontrol strategies to limit the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
- Current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms behind superinfection exclusion in insect-specific flaviviruses.

## Abstract

The Orthoflavivirus genus includes a variety of human-pathogenic, mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBFs) including dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses, which pose significant global public health threats. Insect-specific flaviviruses (ISFs) are another group within the genus that exclusively replicate in mosquitoes and are incapable of infecting vertebrates. ISFs have recently attracted growing research interest due to their potential applications in vaccine development. In addition, multiple studies have demonstrated that prior infection with ISFs such as Palm Creek virus and Binjari virus can suppress subsequent infection with human-pathogenic MBFs. This phenomenon, known as superinfection exclusion (SIE), opens the avenue for the potential applications of ISFs in MBF transmission control. This prompted a growing number of studies into ISFs and their interactions with MBFs in mosquito hosts. In this review, we provide an overview on ISFs, with a particular emphasis on the capacity of different ISFs to cause SIE, the current insights into the mechanisms of this phenomenon, and the potential use of ISFs in the SIE-based biocontrol strategies.