Malaria is a disease that is caused by parasites which can be transmitted from person to person through infected mosquito bites. It is estimated that by the end of the year malaria will have affected around 214 million people around the world and killed approximately 438,000 people. A group of scientists from the University of California have been able to produce a strain of mosquito that has the ability to spread malaria resistant genes into a population of mosquitos through its offspring. Scientists at the University of California were able to create the new strain of mosquitos using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR. This tool allows scientists to insert anti-malaria antibody genes into a specific DNA site in the embryo of mosquitos. The mosquitos used in this study were Anopheles Stephensi, which are the main carriers of malaria in Asia. Results of the experiment showed that inserting anti-malaria antibodies into specific DNA sites in the embryo prevented 99.5% of the offspring from having the ability to pass on malaria. Professor Anthony James from the University of California-Irvine has been engineering anti-disease mosquitos for over 20 years and states that these new findings show “real promise that this technique can be adapted for eliminating malaria”. However, Professor James also explains that there is still a lot more research that needs to be done in order to confirm that the anti-malaria antibodies actually work against the malaria parasite as well as the challenges that come along with getting permission from various countries to test these modified mosquitos.
This article was very informative and interesting. I was never aware that approximately half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria. I was surprised that the researchers were able to see such promising results with anti-malaria genes being passed on to 99.5% of the offspring. Although more research still needs to be conducted I think the results so far show a lot of promise. Hopefully these promising results will someday be able to help eliminate malaria.
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