Genetically engineered mosquito-killing fungi delivered from males to females during mating could soon be a promising ally in the fight against malaria.
A team of scientists from Burkina Faso and the United States exposed a group of adult male Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes — a major malaria vector in West Central Africa — to fungal spores. Some males were exposed to a wild-type fungal strain, while others were infected with a transgenic strain expressing insect-specific toxins.
News Medical Life Sciences summarized the study, explaining that up to 89.33% of the females died within two weeks after mating with a male that had been treated with the transgenic fungi. Meanwhile, around 68% of the females died after mating with a male treated with the wild-type fungi. But the males didn't remain infectious forever; scientists found that the effects started wearing off after about 24 hours.
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The new research could serve as an important tool in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, which killed over half a million people in 2023, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that an estimated 400 million people are infected with dengue virus each year, with 21,000 dying.
According to a number of scientists, these statistics are only expected to increase as our planet continues to overheat. For instance, the Stanford Report asserted that warmer temperatures, changes in rainfall, and human activity are enabling the spread of mosquitoes to new locations. The publication pointed out that in 2023, Florida and Texas experienced their first locally transmitted malaria cases in 20 years. And European health officials recently announced at least 19 cases of Oropouche, a mosquito-borne virus that had previously never been recorded on that continent.
The new fungi study is far from the only breakthrough when it comes to controlling disease-carrying mosquito populations. For example, one team of American scientists recently discovered that adding soap to certain mosquito-killing pesticides made the formulations 10 times stronger. And a recent analysis of the world's first malaria vaccine found that it reduced death among young children by 13% over the course of a four-year pilot program.
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Nor is this the first time that scientists have experimented with fungi to kill mosquitoes. However, the authors noted that the traditional application method has been via direct contact of spores with indoor resting mosquitoes, which has its limitations.
"Many malaria-transmitting mosquitoes feed and rest outdoors," the researchers stated. "To target these, we have developed an alternative application method that exploits the lethality of transgenic fungi as a sexually transmitted mosquito disease. This approach has both a wider interdisciplinary significance and important implications for preventing mosquito-borne diseases."
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