Dr. Diego Guerin, of the Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation (Fundación Biofísica Bizkaia), is leading an ambitious new project called RedTrV financed by CYTED (http://www.cyted.org), which includes researchers from 16 countries in Latin America and Europe. The project is based on the idea of using the Triatoma virus (TrV) as a biological control agent for triatomine insects (bedbugs known variously as ‘chinches’, ‘vinchucas’ and ‘chipo’). These insects transmit the parasite T. cruzi, a protozoan which causes Chagas disease in humans and animals, an illness similar to malaria affecting dozens of millions of people in 21 Latin American countries.

RedTrV is made up of 29 research groups, among them the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which specialises in medicine, entomology, virology, and which has experts in Chagas disease and other tropical diseases and in structural biology. Also among the research groups is the Basque company Praxis Pharmaceuticals, which is interested in developing the biopesticide.

The TrV virus belongs to the Dicistroviridae family; it is a natural enemy of triatomines and was discovered in the species T.infestans in Argentina. Studies with TrV showed that its forms of transmission are transovarial, cannibalism and coprophagia, and that the infection causes retardation in development, reduction in the number of eggs laid and premature death in these insects. It was also observed that humans with Chagas disease (infected with T. cruzi) did not show an immune reaction to TrV, which indicates that the virus is not a pathogen for humans. Based on this research, the group hopes to be able to use TrV as a biological control agent against triatomine bugs that transmit Chagas disease.

Diego Guerin also teaches at the University of the Basque Country, and is head of research of the Crystallography Group for Proteins and Viruses in the Biophysics Unit (CSIC-UPV/EHU). This lab uses the technique of X-ray crystallography to explore proteins at atomic level.