Researchers give mosquitoes antimalarial drugs to help prevent the disease

In order to help combat malaria and stop mosquitoes from spreading it, researchers have figured out a new way to give them antimalarial drugs through the mosquito nets.

Researchers from Harvard University have developed an approach to give mosquitoes antimalarial drugs laced on mosquito nets, so that when a mosquito lands on them, any malaria parasites it has been carrying are killed.

Researcher Flaminia Catteruccia and he team found that an antimalarial drug called ATQ given to travelers visiting areas where malaria is common, also worked on mosquitoes.

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The team kept mosquitoes in a container with ATQ-treated surfaces for 6 minutes. The mosquitoes were then fed with malaria-infected blood. When they dissected the mosquitoes, the researchers discovered no signs of the parasites, explained New Scientist.

“What I think is really exciting about our research is that targeting the malaria parasite directly within the mosquito is a potent method for blocking malaria transmission in its own right,” said lead author Douglas Paton.

In contrast, over 80% of the mosquitoes that were not exposed to ATQ contained the parasites. Also, exposure to ATQ did not harm the mosquitoes’ survival rates. “We are very astonished to see the drug eliminated all parasites,” expressed Catteruccia.

Moreover, Catteruccia further suggests that antimalarial drugs could be added to the coating for mosquito nets along with insecticides in order to prevent the disease, according to the research published in the journal Nature.