Scientists engineer mosquitoes unable to spread malaria

Scientists have genetically engineered mosquitoes with the ability to slow the intestinal growth of the parasite that causes malaria. This is an advance that will help prevent the transmission of the disease to humans.

These engineered mosquitoes produce compounds that interfere with the growth of the parasite that causes malaria. This makes it less likely that it will reach the mosquito’s salivary glands and infect the insect with a single bite before it dies.

Researchers at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Institute for Disease Modeling have developed a model that can assess the impact of such changes when used in a variety of African settings.

They found that fixing the problem could be effective even in areas with high infection rates.

on the other hand, technologyas described in a paper published in scientific progress journal. It has been shown to dramatically reduce the likelihood of spreading malaria in a laboratory setting. If proven to be safe and effective in real-world settings, it could provide a powerful new tool to help eradicate malaria.

The disease is transmitted between people through female mosquitoes that bite people infected with the malaria parasite. The parasite then develops to the next stage in the mosquito’s gut, moving to the salivary glands where it is ready to infect the next mosquito bite.

However, only about 10% of mosquitoes live long enough for the parasite to become infective. The team aimed to increase the odds even further by extending the time it takes for the parasite to grow in the gut.

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Researchers from the Transmission:Zero team at Imperial College London, UK, have genetically engineered Anopheles gambiae, a major malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa, to produce antimicrobial peptides in the gut when mosquitoes ingest blood. I made it to generate. .

These peptides inhibit malaria parasite development by interfering with the parasite’s energy metabolism, and also shorten the mosquito’s lifespan, further hindering its ability to transmit the parasite.

By the time the next stage of the parasite reaches the mosquito’s salivary glands, most mosquitoes in nature are expected to die.

“Mosquitoes and mosquito-borne parasites are becoming resistant to available interventions, such as insecticides and treatments, and funding is constrained, requiring the development of innovative new tools. Yes,” said study co-lead author Tibebu Habtewold.

“By slowing the growth of mosquito parasites, we have opened up more opportunities to stop malaria transmission from mosquitoes to humans,” said Astrid Hoermann, co-first author of the study.

Using genetic modification to prevent the spread of malaria into the real world would require spreading it from lab-reared mosquitoes to wild mosquitoes. This innovation is designed to be combined with existing ‘gene-driven’ technologies to spread the modification and significantly reduce malaria transmission.

“Gene drives, combined with drugs, vaccines and mosquito control, are one of the most powerful weapons that can stop the spread of malaria and save lives,” said the study’s co-lead author. Professor George Christofides said:

Adding gene drives to mosquitoes results in preferential inheritance of the antiparasitic genetic modifications and more widespread spread among natural populations.

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However, because it is new, it requires very careful planning to minimize risk before field testing.

As such, the Transmission:Zero team is creating two separate but compatible strains of modified mosquitoes.

Then simply test the anti-parasitic modification alone first and add the gene drive if shown to be effective.

The team, along with partners in Tanzania, have set up facilities to produce and process genetically modified mosquitoes and conduct some initial tests. These include collecting parasites from locally infected schoolchildren to confirm that the modification works against circulating parasites in relevant communities.

They also do a thorough risk assessment of the potential release of modified mosquitoes, taking into account the potential hazards and making sure they have buy-in from the community. We hope that our interventions will eventually help eradicate malaria.

Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases, with about half of the world’s population at risk. In 2021 alone, 241 million people were infected and 627,000 died, most of them children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.