It seems that several diseases that are spread by insects might be combated by mosquitoes that have been genetically engineered. Scientists in the United Kingdom have shown that mosquitoes might be a valuable tool in tackling the very diseases that they spread, such as dengue fever.
Researchers based at the Cayman Islands have found success in genetically engineering the male so that they only produce sterile offspring. The research has been published in Nature Biotechnology and has shown that the genetic modification is effective in the lab; however it remains to be tested on a large scale in the wild.
Dengue Fever is one of the diseases that these mosquitoes will be particularly effective in tackling. The World Health Organisation estimates that around 50 million people are infected with the disease each year and this number is rising. Currently there is no vaccine for the virus.
Scientists have known for a long time that sterilising male insects can mean that the insect population decline. Screwworm Fly was effectively eradicated in the Caribbean by irradiating males so that they could not produce offspring. The irradiation procedure has been less effective with other insects as is often weakens them to such an extent that they cannot mate.
A limited study in the wild showed that once the genetically modified male mosquitoes were released there were several eggs around the environment that carried the genetically modified gene. This means that they managed successfully breed but the offspring remain sterile.
The chief scientist behind the research is Luke Alphey who commented, “The results indicated that the genetically modified males were quite successful at breeding. They were not as successful as their unmodified counterparts but they were successful enough to affect the population.”
A dengue expert from the WHO is Dr Raman Velayudhan and he has said of the research, “The level of fitness in the mosquitoes that have been genetically modified is much better than we have seen in previous attempts to sterilise males. This could be an effective way to suppress the population of mosquitoes and does affect the prevalence of dengue.
There are some risks associated with releasing genetically modified insects into the wild and the WHO is currently drafting advice about how they should be deployed. This information is expected to be released by the end of 2011.
Genetically modifying mosquitoes is something that is very popular in science currently and another group have recently created a mosquito that is unaffected by the malaria parasite. Malaria is often the focus of the studies because it is such a serious disease, but there are other forms of treatment for it. Dengue is a disease without a current vaccine or preventative medication; therefore it could be argued that it is equally important to develop a way to protect against
The researchers have admitted that genetically modified mosquitoes are not some miracle cure that is going to prevent diseases but they are an important step forward. When used with other forms of prevention a real impact on the prevalence of the disease will be seen.
The next step in the research will be proving that the use of genetically modified male mosquitoes is an effective enough way to reduce the number of mosquitoes in the wild. The reduction in mosquitoes would lead to a reduction in the occurrence of dengue.
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