This Drug Turns Human Blood Poisonous for Mosquitoes, Raises Hope Against Malaria

• In a groundbreaking approach to combat malaria-related deaths, scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have proposed a radical solution: making human blood toxic to mosquitoes. The key to this approach lies in a drug called nitisinone, already approved for treating rare genetic disorders.
• The study revealed that even a low dose of nitisinone in human blood can be lethal to mosquitoes, killing them within 12 hours and thereby potentially reducing the risk of malaria transmission.

Malaria being fatal
Malaria is one of the contaminated diseases which leads to the death of half a million people every year. To stop this, this drug has been introduced. The microbiologist Lee R., who led the study, says, “One way to stop the spread of diseases transmitted by insects is to make the blood of animals and humans toxic to these blood-feeding insects.”
Nitisinone is basically a bioenzyme that helps to prevent the buildup of a special protein to treat genetic disorders, and it does not seem to kill other pollinating insects. However, when the same mechanism is applied to mosquitoes, it becomes fatal for them.

Nitisinone vs Ivermectin
Nitisinone is now also being compared to ivermectin, which is an antiparasitic drug earlier researched for its mosquito-killing effects. However, nitisinone is considered better as it may work faster than ivermectin and lasts longer in blood. This drug is also less toxic to the nervous system as compared to ivermectin.

No conclusion yet
However, this drug seems promising, the research over this is not completely concluded and methods are still in development. Scientists have suggested that it can develop insecticide resistance if used widely as a mass administration programme. Moreover, while now it is showing minimal harm to other pollinating insects, the long-term consequences are still not known yet.

Read More :- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adr4827