Human attractiveness to Aedes albopictus : sweat amino acid associations and functional screening of skin volatiles
Yingxiang Zhu, Siyuan Ge, Jinmiao Zhang, Xinyue Zhang, Mingchao Tan, Zijun Mo, Danyi Wu, Qiwei Xuan, Guohua Zhang, Xiaoyan Du, Zhaojun ShengAbstract
BACKGROUND
Human‐derived chemical cues are central to mosquito host‐seeking and may provide candidates for odor‐baited surveillance and attract‐and‐kill tools. However, the factors associated with inter‐individual attractiveness to Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and the behavioral activity of corresponding skin volatiles remain incompletely characterized.
RESULTS
Attraction was measured in 52 volunteers using a three‐chamber assay. Sex, blood type, age, body mass index and exhaled CO 2 metrics were not significantly associated with attraction. In a subset of nine volunteers, total sweat amino acid concentration was inversely associated with attraction ( r = −0.812, P = 0.008). Headspace solid‐phase microextraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry detected 28 skin volatiles, including 5 compounds present in all volunteers and 10 volunteer‐specific compounds selected with the common compounds for functional screening. Electroantennography showed significantly greater responses to all five common compounds than to liquid paraffin and to crotonaldehyde than to n ‐hexane. Dual‐choice bioassays identified six compounds with positive directional responses after Holm–Bonferroni correction: decanal, nonanal, tricyclodecenyl acetate, tetradecanol, tridecane and ( E )‐2‐dodecen‐1‐ol.
CONCLUSION
The integrated chemical, electrophysiological and behavioral workflow identified an inverse association between sweat amino acid concentration and human attractiveness, and defined six skin volatiles as priorities for dose–response, blend and semi‐field evaluation toward Aedes albopictus lure development. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.