During an experiment, researchers made a serendipitous discovery that a mosquito colony did not develop the malaria parasite, which led to potential new tools for combating malaria, one of the world's oldest diseases that kills approximately 600,000 people each year.
Scientists are currently investigating whether using this bacterium under "real-world conditions" is safe.
Researchers working for the pharmaceutical company GSK in Spain noticed that a mosquito colony stopped carrying malaria during drug development research.
Dr. Janneth Rodrigues, who led the study, said, "The infection rate in mosquitoes began to decrease, and by the end of the year, the mosquitoes were no longer infected with the malaria parasite."
The research team froze samples from the 2014 experiment and reexamined them two years later to understand what had happened.
The research revealed that a specific bacterium called TC1, naturally present in the environment, prevented the development of the malaria parasite in the mosquitoes' intestines.
Dr. Rodrigues said, "When this bacterium establishes itself in the mosquito's gut, it stays there for its entire life. And we discovered that this bacterium is what reduces the transmission of malaria in mosquitoes."
ANOTHER WEAPON AGAINST MALARIA
The research is ongoing in an enclosed area called the "MosquitoSphere" in Burkina Faso to understand the effectiveness and safety of using "harmony" (the bacterium) in the real world.
If successful and this bacterium-based discovery can be turned into a product, it could become another weapon in our fight against one of the world's oldest diseases.
Approximately 620,000 people die from malaria each year, with most of the victims being children under the age of five.
Although a vaccine has been developed against malaria, vaccination rates in Africa remain low.
