Can we control vector-borne diseases using genetically modified mosquitoes?

 

In the United States, preliminary results from an open-air trial with genetically altered mosquitoes aimed at suppressing a natural population of virus-carrying mosquitoes have shown encouraging results.

Oxitec, a biotechnology company located in the United Kingdom, is conducting an experiment to lower the number of wild Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which are a vector for diseases including chikungunya, dengue, zika, and yellow fever. The scientists created a gene that causes the female offspring to die.

The outcomes, which came after a decade of battling for public acceptability and governmental permits, are insufficient. Larger investigations are required to determine whether the aim can be met. Their findings, which have yet to be published, were revealed on April 6 during a webinar.

The experiment began in the Florida Keys in April 2021, but not without opposition from the locals. Their concerns ranged from changed mosquitos causing harm to humans to the impact on mosquito-eating wildlife and other unexpected outcomes such as the introduction of a lethal virus. The mosquitos had already been tested in the field in Brazil, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and Malaysia, but no similar trials had been carried out in the United States.

All female mosquitoes that fluoresced under a certain light, indicating that they had received the fatal gene, perished before reaching maturity, indicating that their findings were promising. The scientists discovered that the fatal gene remained in the natural population for two to three months, or around three generations of mosquito progeny, before vanishing. "Even after multiple generations, no mosquitos harboring the fatal gene were identified beyond 400 meters from the release locations."

It is not a new concept to genetically edit insects to limit their number in order to prevent disease transmission. Scientists are now seeking to create ticks to avoid infections, which began a decade ago.