Transgenic mosquitoes can help fight Malaria

The genetic modification of mosquitoes may be the new defense in the fight against malaria, a disease which affects 300 million people a year, killing more than a million. Scientists at the John Hopkins University in Maryland, who have been studying almost every aspect of the disease from the DNA composition of the mosquitoes to the human immune system, have recently been able to genetically modify mosquitoes so that they are unable to pass on the disease. The entire genome of the Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito responsible for the spread of malaria, has been sequenced, and out of 1500 genes, scientists have identified 10 which are linked to malaria. Scientists were then able to modify the mosquitoes by giving them a gene that made it impossible for them to transmit the malaria causing plasmodium parasite to other animals and humans.

The aim of this transformation is that the transgenic mosquitoes may eventually outnumber and effectively outbreed the wild type malaria transmitting mosquitoes, hence breaking the route through which humans are infected. The results of experiments done in which approximately 1200 transgenic mosquitoes and 1200 wild type mosquitoes are released into cages with malaria infected mice indicates that the transgenic mosquitoes are better at surviving than the wild type ones. After nine generations, the ratio of transgenic to wild type mosquitoes had shifted to 70 – 30 respectively. This indicated that the transgenic mosquitoes would be unlikely to die out in the wild. Research is continuing into how to well the transgenic mosquitoes do in respect to wild type mosquitoes in non-malaria affected areas.



Links
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/genetic-discovery-may-eradicate-malaria/2007/03/20/1174153063164.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1877496.htm
http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/2006/voa_malaria.html

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