Biotechnology UK CU – The malaria parasite usually makes use of the mosquito as a vector to spread malaria, however according to a new study the use of the mosquito as a host could possibly become a thing of the past.
Researchers have engineered mosquitoes that delay the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, obstructing malaria transmission to humans.
The mosquitoes will be genetically modified leading to the synthesis of components in their guts which results in physical stunting the growth of parasites and blocking them from reaching the mosquitoes’ salivary glands hence preventing transmission.
The results indicated feasibility under laboratory conditions. The innovation, by scientists from the Transmission: Zero at Imperial College London, is designed so it can be incorporated with present ‘gene drive’ technology to spread the modification and rapidly reduce malaria transmission. The researchers are focusing on field trials, and are set to vigorously test the safety of the new modification prior to combining it with a gene drive for real-world results.
The elimination of parasitic hosts has often been an area of interest for researchers however applying them in the real-world could require rapid testing as factors such as its impact on nature and how well it translates into the real world requires time.
Malaria spreads between persons after a female mosquito bites an individual infected with the malaria parasite, which is then followed by the parasite developing into its next stage in the mosquito’s gut and then moves to the salivary glands, ready to spread the disease further.
Astrid Hoermann, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, who Co-first authored the study said “For many years, we have been trying to no avail to make mosquitoes that cannot be infected by the parasite or ones that can clear all the parasites with their immune system. Delaying parasite’s development inside the mosquito is a conceptual shift that has opened many more opportunities to block malaria transmission from mosquitoes to humans.”
