Malaria parasites, responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths annually—mostly among children—are transmitted by female mosquitoes during blood feeding.
Traditionally, the focus has been on killing mosquitoes with insecticides rather than eliminating the malaria parasites they carry.
However, researchers at Harvard University have discovered two drugs that can effectively clear malaria from mosquitoes when absorbed through their legs. Their long-term goal is to coat bed nets with this drug combination.
Challenges in Current Malaria Prevention Methods
Sleeping under a bed net has successfully prevented malaria because the main malaria-spreading mosquitoes hunt at night.
Health experts also recommend vaccines to protect children living in high-risk areas.
Nets act as both a physical barrier and a source of insecticides that kill mosquitoes when they land on them.
However, mosquitoes in many countries have developed resistance to insecticides, so the chemicals no longer kill the insects as effectively as before.
Researcher Dr. Alexandra Probst from Harvard says, “We didn’t try to directly kill parasites in the mosquito before this because we focused on killing the mosquito.”
She adds that this approach “no longer cuts it.”
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Drug-Infused Bed Nets Offer Hope in Malaria Fight
Researchers studied the DNA of malaria parasites to identify weak points during infection in mosquitoes. They screened a large library of potential drugs and shortlisted 22, testing them by giving female mosquitoes a malaria-contaminated blood meal. Two drugs were found to be highly effective, killing 100% of the parasites, even when mosquitoes survived contact with treated bed nets.
The drugs, tested on bed net-like materials, can kill the parasites inside mosquitoes, preventing malaria transmission. The researchers note that the parasite is less likely to develop resistance to these drugs. This is because far fewer parasites exist in mosquitoes compared to infected humans. The drug’s effect can last up to a year on nets, offering a potentially cheap and durable alternative to insecticides.
While the approach has shown promise in the lab, real-world trials are planned in Ethiopia. Full results will take at least six years, but the goal is to produce bed nets treated with both anti-malaria drugs and insecticides, providing a dual defense if one method fails.
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