The release of modified mosquitoes to suppress/replace vectors constitutes a promising tool for vector control and disease prevention. Evidence regarding these innovative modification techniques is scarce and disperse. This work conducted a systematic review, gathering and analysing research articles from PubMed and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde databases whose results report efficacy and non-target effects of using modified insects for disease prevention, until 2016. More than 1500 publications were screened and 349 were analysed. Only 12/3.4% articles reported field-based evidence and 41/11.7% covered modification strategies' post-release efficacy. Variability in the effective results (90/25.7%) questioned its reproducibility in different settings. We also found publications reporting reversal outcomes 38/10.9%, (e.g. post-release increase of vector population). Ecological effects were also reported, such as horizontal transfer events (54/15.5%), and worsening pathogenesis induced by natural wolbachia (10/2.9%). Present work revealed promising outcomes of modifying strategies. However, it also revealed a need for field-based evidence mainly regarding epidemiologic and long-term impact. It pointed out some eventual irreversible and important effects that must not be ignored when considering open-field releases, and that may constitute constraints to generate the missing field evidence. Present work constitutes a baseline of knowledge, offering also a methodological approach that may facilitate future updates.

中文翻译：

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当我们改造蚊子以预防疾病时会发生什么？系统回顾。

释放经过改造的蚊子来抑制/替换病媒是病媒控制和疾病预防的一个有前途的工具。关于这些创新修饰技术的证据很少且分散。这项工作进行了系统回顾，收集并分析了 PubMed 和 Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde 数据库中的研究文章，其结果报告了截至 2016 年使用转基因昆虫预防疾病的功效和非目标效应。筛选了 1500 多篇出版物，分析了 349 篇出版物。只有 12/3.4% 的文章报告了基于现场的证据，41/11.7% 的文章报道了修改策略的发布后功效。有效结果的变异性 (90/25.7%) 质疑其在不同环境下的再现性。我们还发现出版物报告逆转结果为 38/10.9%（例如，释放后媒介种群数量增加）。还报道了生态影响，例如水平转移事件（54/15.5%）和天然沃尔巴克氏体引起的发病机制恶化（10/2.9%）。目前的工作揭示了修改策略的有希望的结果。然而，它也表明需要主要关于流行病学和长期影响的实地证据。它指出了一些最终不可逆转的重要影响，在考虑露天释放时不能忽视这些影响，并且可能构成生成缺失现场证据的限制。目前的工作构成了知识的基线，还提供了一种可能有助于未来更新的方法论。