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Microbial 'Mosquito Net' may Help Prevent Mosquito-Borne Disease
Earlier this year, researchers showed that they could cut the lives of disease-carrying mosquitoes in half by infecting them with a bacterium they took from fruit flies.
And now, in a new report, the researchers have suggested that the Wolbachia bacteria also makes the mosquitoes more resistant to infection by viruses that are a growing threat to humans, including those responsible for dengue fever and Chikungunya.
Once infected with Wolbachia, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes also become less suitable as hosts for a form of malaria parasite that infects birds, said Scott O'Neill of The University of Queensland.
"This might be very powerful in reducing pathogen transmission by Aedes aegypti to humans, particularly for dengue and Chikungunya. Together with the previously described life-shortening effects, the results suggest we might be able to have a major impact on disease," said O'Neill.
But this would be possible if the researchers could show that the Wolbachia infection can invade natural mosquito populations, he added, a question his team is working on right now.
Wolbachia is already rampant in nature- the bacterium is estimated to infect up to 60 percent of all insect species.
"We are currently conducting a series of experiments in contained outdoor greenhouse settings that are examining the ability of the Wolbachia infection to spread into natural mosquito populations. If these prove successful, we hope to move to open field testing within the next one to two years," he said.
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