Sea Cucumber Against Malaria

Sea Cucumber Against Malaria

Sea cucumbers could provide a potential new weapon to block transmission of the malaria parasite, a study suggests.

The slug-like creatures which live on the sea floor have a gene that can be used to stop the malaria parasite developing in the bodies of mosquitoes.

One day this approach might help prevent the biting insects infecting humans and spreading the disease, say scientists.

The sea cucumber gene produces a protein called lectin which is poisonous to the malaria parasite. Researchers fused part of the gene with part of a mosquito gene, causing the insect to release lectin into its gut when feeding.

Laboratory tests showed that the protein significantly impaired development of malaria parasites inside the insects. It appeared to be effective against a number of the four different strains of parasite that cause malaria in humans.

About 40% of the world's population, around 2.5 billion people, are at risk of malaria. Of these, more than 500 million are made severely ill with malaria each year and more than one million die from the infection. Malaria is an especially a serious problem in Africa, where it is responsible for one in every five childhood deaths.

Work Left

Researcher Professor Bob Sinden, from Imperial College London, said: "These results are very promising and show that genetically engineering mosquitoes in this way has a clear impact on the parasites' ability to multiply inside the mosquito host."

However, he said much more work still had to be done before the technique could be used to curb the spread of malaria.

"Although the sea cucumber protein significantly reduced the number of parasites in mosquitoes, it did not totally remove them from all insects.

"At the current stage of development, the genetically modified mosquitoes would remain dangerous to humans.

"Ultimately, one aim of our field is to find a way of genetically engineering mosquitoes so that the malaria parasite cannot develop inside them."

Professor Sanjeev Krishna, an expert in malaria at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, said new treatments for malaria were vital, as there was some sign that the parasites which cause the disease were developing resistance to the current artemisinin drugs.

He said: "This is a very important first step in developing a potential new way to control this infection."

Dr Ron Behrens, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the technique showed promise in theory - but he warned that introducing genetically modified mosquitoes could be fraught with practical difficulties.

"You would have to get the modified version to become the predominant species, and that has never been done in any setting before," he said.

However, much more work still had to be done before the technique could be used to curb the spread of malaria, he said.