Malaria

[John Clark]

There is an interesting article in today's issue of the Journal Science about a type of fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense. This fungus is very specialized, it makes itsliving by infecting just one species of mosquito, the Anopheline, which also happens to be the single most important carrier of Malaria. Over millions of years the mosquito has developed a resistance to the fungus so now it's just an inconvenience and is rarely fatal to the insect. So scientists used genetic engineering to put the gene that the that Funnel-Wed Spider uses to make its venom into the fungus, this vastly increases the fungus's fire power so it can now kill the bug even at very low concentrations. In a 6,500 square foot jungle enclosure they found that the fungus now killed more that 99% of the Anopheline mosquitos and even more important it killed nothing else.

This report has just come out but already there are howls of protest.  Some who say this technology shouldn't be used because genetic engineering is inherently evil. Others say is would be immoral to drive a species into extinction even if it's only an insect. The head of the Mother Earth Foundation said "Fighting malaria is something that everybody should do. But fighting malaria through genetic engineering is dangerous". I guess he things 400,000 people dying every year is not dangerous.

Abstract:

Malaria control efforts require implementation of new technologies that manage insecticide resistance. Metarhizium pingshaenseprovides an effective, mosquito-specific delivery system for potent insect-selective toxins. A semifield trial in a MosquitoSphere (a contained, near-natural environment) in Soumousso, a region of Burkina Faso where malaria is endemic, confirmed that the expression of an insect-specific toxin (Hybrid) increased fungal lethality and the likelihood that insecticide-resistant mosquitoes would be eliminated from a site. Also, as Hybrid-expressing M. pingshaense is effective at very low spore doses, its efficacy lasted longer than that of the unmodified Metarhizium. Deployment of transgenic Metarhizium against mosquitoes could (subject to appropriate registration) be rapid, with products that could synergistically integrate with existing chemical control strategies to avert insecticide resistance.

Transgenic Metarhizium rapidly kills mosquitoes in a malaria-endemic region of Burkina Faso

John K Clark

[Lawrence Crowell]

Another strategy I read about is to genetically modify anopheles so its immune system kills off the protistan that causes malaria. A virus vector is proposed to be used.

LC