Mosquitoes engineered to resist the malaria parasite

Anopheles mosquitoes that have been genetically engineered with multiple antimalaria molecules, acting at different stages of the malaria life cycle, are strongly resistant to the parasite that causes malaria and are unlikely to lose that resistance quickly.

That’s according to an early-stage laboratory demonstration, conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in the journal Science Advances, which suggests that releasing such mosquitoes in areas where malaria is endemic could dramatically reduce local, mosquito-borne transmission of malaria to humans for prolonged periods.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, which infect certain mosquito species and can be transmitted among humans and other mammals via mosquito bites. The disease continues to be one of the world’s top public health threats, accounting for about 200 million clinical cases and 400,000 deaths per year — mostly in children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa.

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