Phys.org September 21, 2022
An international team of researchers (UK, USA – industry) has genetic modification that causes mosquitoes to produce compounds in their guts that stunt the growth of parasites, that are unlikely to reach the mosquitoes’ salivary glands and pass it on before the insects die. The technique reduced the possibility of malaria spread in a lab setting, and if proven safe and effective in real-world settings it could be a powerful new tool to help eliminate malaria. It can be coupled with existing “gene drive” technology to spread the modification and drastically cut malaria transmission. Only around 10% of mosquitoes lived long enough for the parasite to develop far enough to be infectious. The team aimed to lengthen the odds even further, by extending the time it takes for the parasite to develop in the gut. Modeling the spread of this modification using a large-scale agent-based model of malaria epidemiology reveals that it can break the cycle of disease transmission across a range of transmission intensities…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Generation of gene drive effector strains expressing AMPs. Credit: SCIENCE ADVANCES, 21 Sep 2022, Vol 8, Issue 38