Researchers in the UK and Kenya have found a microbe,
Microsporidia MB that completely blocks malaria in disease-carrying mosquitoes living on the shores of Lake Victoria. The discovery has enormous potential to provide a means of controlling the scourge that
kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children under the age of five living in sub-Saharan Africa. The microbe lives in the guts of the
Anopheles gambiae mosquito. Researchers could not find a single mosquito with Microsporidia that also carried the disease protozoa
Plasmodium. Laboratory experiments confirmed the protection given
Anopheles by the microbe; results are published in
Nature Communications.
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P. falciparum gametocyte
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Large scale distribution of insecticide treated netting over the past fifteen years has reduced the number of malaria cases by 40%. However, the number
of cases has plateaued in recent years, indicating the need for
additional control measures. The new discovery promises an additional
effective method of disease control if mosquitoes can be effectively
inoculated in the wild.
Microsporidia MB, a form of fungi, is a symbiant that is transmitted maternally and occurs in wild populations.
When a malaria carrying female mosquito bites a human,
Plasmodium sporozoites are injected into the bloodstream.
Microsporidia prevents a mosquito's salivary glands from being colonized by
Plasmodium, and interferes with the protozoan's development in the mosquito's gut. What methods can be used to increase the presence of the fungi in wild mosquito populations to sufficient levels to be an effective prophylactic requires further research.
