What if, instead of killing mosquitoes to stop malaria, we simply cured them? Harvard scientists believe giving mosquitoes anti-malarial drugs could turn these notorious disease-carriers into harmless biters. Malaria, a parasitic disease spread by female mosquitoes, causes nearly 600,000 deaths annually, most of them children, and traditional prevention efforts have focused on insecticide-coated bed nets, which work by creating a physical barrier and killing mosquitoes that land on them, per the BBC.
However, resistance to insecticides is rising, lowering their effectiveness. To address this, Harvard researchers tested a variety of drugs on malaria-infected mosquitoes and identified two that kill all parasites when absorbed through the insect's legs. The idea is to add these drugs to bed nets, so even if a mosquito survives contact, it will no longer be able to spread malaria. Study co-author Alexandra Probst calls the research laid out in the journal Nature a novel approach, noting that the malaria parasite is less likely to develop resistance to these drugs due to the limited number of them found in each mosquito compared to an infected human.
Lab results look promising: The drug treatment lasts up to a year on treated materials, potentially making it a durable and cost-effective alternative to current methods. The next phase—testing these drug-coated nets in real-world conditions—will start in Ethiopia. Results aren't expected for at least six years, but the hope is to eventually use both drugs and insecticides on nets, providing a two-pronged strategy against malaria transmission. "Malaria control desperately needs innovation," study co-author Flaminia Catteruccia says in a release. "This is a momentous step forward in the development of a new mosquito-targeted malaria control strategy." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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