A fungus – genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin – can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests.Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. The researchers say …Read more via BBC News – https://bbc.in/2WyP3e3 Get more World News </s> A genetically modified fungus that kills mosquitoes spreading malaria could provide a breakthrough in the fight against the disease, according to scientists.

Trials in Burkina Faso found that a fungus, modified so that it produces spider toxin, quickly killed large numbers of mosquitos that carry malaria.

It also revealed that the mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days, according to the study published in the journal Science.

The researchers have said their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria. </s> Researchers at the University of Maryland collaborated with the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso to develop a genetically-modified fungus that produces a toxin to kill off populations of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, reported the BBC.

Trials of the new fungus have already been carried out in Burkina Faso and have found that the genetically-enhanced spider toxin produced by the fungi have wiped out 99 percent of mosquito populations in just 45 days.

The fungus, which naturally invades mosquitoes, was joined with the venom of a species of Australian funnel-web spider. The genetic instructions for the production of the venom in the spider were added to the fungi’s own DNA to prompt the production of the toxin by the fungi itself once a spore encountered a mosquito.

Testing showed that the fungus modified with the spider venom could kill more efficiently and without needing to emit as many spores.

Once laboratory tests were found to be successful, researchers took the fungal spores out into the real world to test conditions closer to those of the natural environment. The tests took place in a 6,500-square-foot fake village set up with food for mosquitoes and surrounded by mosquito netting to prevent their escape.

Before releasing 1,500 mosquitoes into the fake village, researchers laid out black cotton sheets of fungal spores mixed with sesame oil to encourage mosquitoes to land and properly be exposed to the fungus.

In addition to the trial with the fungal spores, scientists carried out a control trial in which mosquitoes were left alone and not exposed to the fungus.

The shocking results showed that without the presence of the fungi, mosquito populations increased exponentially. However, with the presence of the deadly spores, just 13 mosquitoes were left in the village after the 45-day trial ended.

Dr. Brain Lovett, from the University of Maryland, commented on the results of the study.

The researcher made sure to add, “Our technology is not aiming to drive the extinction of mosquitoes, what we’re aiming to do is break malaria transmission in an area.”

Malaria, spread through female mosquitoes when they drink a person’s blood, takes more than 400,000 lives per year. Around the world, there are around 219 million reported cases of malaria each year.

The World Health Organization warned that as mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to insecticides, malaria cases are increasing in the 10 worst-affected countries in Africa. </s> Image copyright Science Photo Library

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests.

Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days.

The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria.

The disease, which is spread when female mosquitoes drink blood, kills more than 400,000 people per year.

Worldwide, there are about 219 million cases of malaria each year.

Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria.

The next stage was to enhance the fungus. "They're very malleable, you can genetically engineer them very easily," Prof Raymond St Leger, from the University of Maryland, told BBC News.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Instructions for making the funnel-web spider toxin were added to the fungus's genetic code

They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web spider in Australia.

The genetic instructions for making the toxin were added to the fungus's own genetic code so it would start making the toxin once it was inside a mosquito.

"A spider uses its fangs to pierce the skin of insects and inject toxins, we replaced the fangs of spider with Metarhizium," Prof St Leger explained.

Laboratory tests showed the genetically modified fungus could kill quicker, and that it took fewer fungal spores to do the job. The next step was to test the fungus in as close to real-world conditions as possible.

A 6,500-sq-ft fake village - complete with plants, huts, water sources and food for the mosquitoes - was set up in Burkina Faso. It was surrounded by a double layer of mosquito netting to prevent anything escaping.

Image copyright Etienne Bilgo Image caption A so-called "mosquitosphere" tests the fungus in real-world conditions, without releasing it into the wild

The fungal spores were mixed with sesame oil and wiped on to black cotton sheets. The mosquitoes had to land on the sheets to be exposed to the deadly fungus. The researchers started the experiments with 1,500 mosquitoes.

The results, published in the journal Science, showed numbers soared when the insects were left alone. But when the spider-toxin fungus was used, there were just 13 mosquitoes left after 45 days.

Image copyright Oliver Zida Image caption A mosquito breeding pool inside the test area

"The transgenic fungus quickly collapsed the mosquito population in just two generations," said Dr Brian Lovett, from the University of Maryland.

Tests also showed the fungus was specific to these mosquitoes and did not affect other insects such as bees.

He added: "Our technology is not aiming to drive the extinction of mosquitoes, what we're aiming to do is break malaria transmission in an area."

New tools are needed to tackle malaria as mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides. The World Health Organization has warned that cases are now increasing in the 10 worst affected countries in Africa.

Image copyright Brian Lovett Image caption A mosquito infected with fungus marked in green

Commenting on the findings, Prof Michael Bonsall, from the University of Oxford, said: "Neat - this is a super-exciting study.

"The prospects for controlling mosquitoes using this modified fungus are high.

"Proportionate bio-safety regulations are needed to ensure that the viability of this and other approaches for vector [mosquito] control using genetic methods are not lost through overly zealous restrictions."

Dr Tony Nolan, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, added: "These results are encouraging.

"We need new and complementary tools to augment existing control methods, which are being affected by the development of insecticide-resistance."

Follow James on Twitter. </s> Researchers have used a fake village in Burkina Faso to test a genetically-modified fungus which kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Scientists from the University of Maryland Baltimore and the Research Institute of Health Sciences in Burkina Faso set up a fake 6,500 square feet village or “mosquito sphere”. It was complete with plants, huts, water sources and food for the mosquitoes while special nets were used to prevent the insects from escaping.

Inside the sphere was a fungus known as Metarhizium pingshaense which had been genetically modified so it produces venom originally from a spider.

The fungus naturally infects the Anopheles mosquito, which is the only mosquito genus which carries the disease, and its genetic code was edited so it would start making the spider toxin once it comes into contact with hemolymph, which is the insect equivalent of blood.

A previous study conducted on the Metarhizium fungus in Tanzania in 2005 found it did kill mosquitoes but did it so slowly the mosquito was able to transmit malaria.

The experiment was tested on 1,000 female and 2,000 male insecticide-resistant mosquitoes in two separate spheres — one with the fungus and one without — and the results were published in the journal Science.

The study found approximately 75% of the mosquitoes in the sphere were infected with the toxin and this lead to population collapse in just 45 days with just 13 mosquitoes remaining.

When wild mosquitoes were allowed to live freely in the dome without the presence of the fungus the population increased over the same period.

Malaria is spread when female Anopheles mosquitoes drink blood and spread the parasite from human to human.

According to the World Health Organization, there are around 219 million cases of malaria every year and around 435,000 people die from it annually. </s> In the hope of finding a new way to fight malaria, scientists have used a spider gene to genetically engineer a fungus to produce a venom that can quickly kill mosquitoes.

The modified fungus was a highly effective mosquito killer in the first tests mimicking conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria remains a major public health problem, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.

"We're very excited," says Raymond St. Leger, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland who led the research. "The results are very good. This could save many lives."

Other researchers who are not involved in the research praised the advance.

"I think it's an important step forward," says Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We need something new to combat malaria."

But others worry the approach may be unsafe.

"Fighting malaria is something that everybody should do. But fighting malaria through genetic engineering is dangerous," says Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, an advocacy group based in Nigeria.

Bassey worries the fungus would inadvertently kill other organisms, such as other insects, upsetting fragile ecosystems.

"I'm heavily worried that Africans are the preferred guinea pigs for experimentation, and Africa is going to become a large laboratory for risky experimentation," Bassey says. "We don't want this to happen."

St. Leger stressed that much more research is needed to further evaluate the fungus before anyone considers releasing the organisms in the wild.

"Nothing is going to happen without the acceptance of the local people who would be exposed to the fungus, its benefits and any potential risks," St. Leger says.

But based on laboratory experiments, the fungus seems harmless to other insects, such as bees, St. Leger says.

"From our scientific understanding, so far it's safe," he says.

St. Leger's team genetically modified the fungus using a gene from the Blue Mountains funnel-web spider.

"We put into the fungus this specific gene from a spider which produces a toxin. But it only makes it when the fungus is swimming in insect blood," St. Leger says.

Malaria sickens more than 200 million people every year and kills more than 400,000, mostly children in sub-Saharan African.

"If you look at poverty through the world, where you get the worst poverty that's also where you get the highest incidence of malaria," St. Leger says. "The two are related. It's a huge problem."

Global efforts to control the disease appear to have stalled, in part because the mosquitoes that spread the parasite have become increasingly resistant to insecticides. So scientists have been struggling to find new ways to kill mosquitoes.

Some scientists are testing a controversial approach that involves using the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR and sequence of DNA known as a "gene drive." Those researchers created mosquitoes that can quickly spread a sterilizing mutation to destroy mosquito populations.

St. Leger's approach involves Metarhizium pingshaense, a fungus that infects mosquitoes. The fungus can kill mosquitoes but not quickly.

"So that doesn't suit our purposes. We want the fungus to kill ... the mosquito quickly before it can transmit disease," St. Leger says.

The modified fungus appeared to be highly effective in laboratory tests. So the scientists decided to test the organisms in a setting that more closely resembled the natural environment in sub Saharan Africa. But they needed to keep the organisms contained until further safety testing could be conducted.

So the scientists built a "MosquitoSphere" in Burkina Faso. The structure resembles a large greenhouse. Instead of glass, the walls are made of mosquito netting. Inside are six compartments, including four designed to resemble typical huts.

The scientists spread sesame oil containing the fungus on black sheets inside the huts. Next, the researchers released into each hut about 1,500 Anopheles coluzzi mosquitoes, the species that spreads malaria in Burkina Faso. The idea was that the mosquitoes would pick up the fungi when they rested on the black sheets after feeding on live calves. Mosquitoes are attracted to black objects.

The researchers then compared what happened to the mosquitoes inside the huts with the modified fungi compared with the mosquitoes inside huts with unmodified fungi or no fungi.

The populations of mosquitoes in the huts with the modified fungi crashed within about 45 days, the researchers reported.

"Within two generations, the mosquitoes were basically gone," St. Leger says. "They're finished."

St. Leger says the toxic fungus could provide a powerful new weapon to fight malaria.

"If it just reduced the transmission of malaria by 5% that would still be hundreds of thousands of lives that benefited. And we think it could do quite a bit better than that," he says.

Other scientists say the fungi could provide another weapon in the fight against malaria.

"These results are encouraging," says Tony Nolan, a senior lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Britain. Nolan is helping develop the CRISPR gene-drive mosquitoes.

"The temptation is to think of any one method as a silver bullet, and I don't think that's necessarily realistic," Nolan says. "I envisage both of them being in an armory of weapons."

"This study raises several urgent concerns," says Dana Perls of the Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, echoing the objections of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation. "Genetic engineering of fungus could have problematic negative public health impacts and unpredictable ripple effects on ecosystems, affecting pollinators, bats and bees. Like with all genetic engineering, this needs to be addressed with great caution." </s> Worldwide, there are about 219 million cases of malaria each year.

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests.

Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days.

The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria.

The disease, which is spread when female mosquitoes drink blood, kills more than 400,000 people per year.

Worldwide, there are about 219 million cases of malaria each year.

Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense,which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria.

The next stage was to enhance the fungus. "They're very malleable, you can genetically engineer them very easily," Prof Raymond St Leger, from the University of Maryland, told BBC News. </s> Researchers have developed a new weapon in the fight against malaria — a fungus genetically engineered using a gene found in the venom of an Australian spider.

Trials in Burkina Faso — a country with a high prevalence of malaria — found that a fungus, enhanced by the gene of the Australian Blue Mountains funnel web spider, killed large numbers of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

During the trials, researchers reported a 99% collapse in mosquito populations.

Researchers from the University of Maryland and the Research Institute of Health Sciences in Burkina Faso genetically modified Metarhizium pingshaense, a fungus that is naturally fatal to mosquitoes, to increase its lethality.

The trials, which took place in a purpose-built habitat surrounded by mosquito netting, found that mosquitoes exposed to the toxin died faster than both unexposed insects and those exposed to the naturally occurring fungus.

Brian Lovett, an author of the study, published in the journal Science, told CNN: “Using this technology and applying it in the way that we are proposing, which is to target the mosquitoes that come into peoples houses, we would expect it to have a really large impact on mosquito populations, and to impact on disease transmission as a result.”

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. An estimated 435,000 people die of malaria each year, but it is both preventable and treatable.

Data from the World Health Organization suggests malaria is making a comeback, with 219 million cases in 2017, compared with 217 million in 2016.

Numerous technologies and products have been developed to kill and stop the spread of mosquitoes, including chemical insecticides, but scientists are constantly competing with insecticide resistance in mosquitoes.

“A very big problem is that mosquito populations are huge and very widespread, and tend to be very strongly connected. Most of the control methods for many years have relied on chemical insecticides, and mosquitoes are very good at evolving resistance to insecticide. Resistance tends to spread very quickly, and problematic levels of resistance are occurring right throughout Africa,” said David Weetman, a senior lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine told CNN who was not involved in the research.

The method suggested by researchers at the University of Maryland is designed to be cheap and easy to implement, using only the fungus, cloth and locally produced sesame oil.

“We were looking for a way of very cheaply and easily providing the fungus, a way which citizens can do for themselves,” said Raymond St. Leger from the University of Maryland, one of the study’s authors.

The World Health Organization warned that cases of the disease are on the increase in the 10 worst-affected countries in Africa, with Nigeria, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo reporting the highest estimated increases.

Most malaria cases and deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, but those living in Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific and the Americas are also at risk.

Children under 5 years of age are particularly vulnerable to the disease — the WHO reported that in 2017, they accounted for 61% (266,000) of all malaria deaths worldwide.

Attempts are being made to tackle the disease around the world. In April, the WHO announced that the world’s first malaria vaccine would be given to children in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana as part of a large-scale pilot project.

Scientists are developing technology to both kill and stop the spread of mosquitoes, such as bed nets, wall spraying, mosquito traps and genetic engineering.

“The toolbox is looking quite full at the moment, but the thing with many of these new tools is how to move them from the really exciting breakthrough phase to the implementation,” Weetman adds. </s> Malaria still kills 435,000 people a year and new control tools are desperately needed - Ridley Scott Associates/Malaria Must Die

Scientists have genetically modified a fungus so that it can kill mosquitoes as part of a new drive to fight malaria.

The trial in Burkina Faso – which was conducted in a sealed model village – killed more than 99 per cent of 1,500 mosquitoes and is being hailed as a “big step” forward by the study's authors.

However, critics are concerned that the genetically modified fungus could impact other insects and even animals.

“Fighting malaria through genetic engineering is dangerous” Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, an advocacy group based in Nigeria, told NPR.

“I'm heavily worried that Africans are the preferred guinea pigs for experimentation, and Africa is going to become a large laboratory for risky experimentation.”

The experiment was conducted by scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD) in the US and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso and its findings published this week in the journal Science.

They took a naturally occurring fungus, Metarhizium pingshaense, and combined it with the DNA of a venomous Australian Blue Mountains funnel-web spider. While the fungus does kill mosquitoes in its unaltered state, when combined with the new spider genes it becomes far more deadly and fast-acting.

Experts say the fungus could “destroy” mosquito populations.

“It’s a really exciting study and it looks like this has great potential to become another tool in the interventions toolbox,” Dr David Weetman, senior lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, told The Telegraph.

“It’s a big step forward in that they have studied the fungus in a realistic environment and shown that it can effectively destroy a mosquito population, by killing them but also depressing the ability of female mosquito to reproduce.”

Roughly 435,000 people die from malaria each year and the battle against the disease is stalling. According to the World Health Organization, the number of cases reported worldwide rose by three million in 2017, to a total of 219 million.

Part of the problem is that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the most common insecticides, prompting a race among scientists to find alternatives.

The fightback is taking a number of routes. New bednets impregnated with multiple insecticides, or even antimalarials drugs, are being developed to kill the mosquitoes already immune and prevent the further spread of resistance. And last month the first malaria vaccine was launched in a pilot in Malawi after 30 years of development.

But genetic engineering is also being explored, of which this modified fungus is just one example.

Researchers have developed GM mosquitoes that could kill off its entire species by spreading a faulty gene. If it works in the wild, the controversial technology – called gene drive – could help eliminate malaria.

However the scientists behind the modified transgenic fungus say that their aim is not to wipe out all mosquitoes, but to combat insecticide resistance.

The fungus would be used inside houses, much like an insecticide, and has not been designed to spread naturally.

In the trial in the “mosquito sphere” in Burkina Faso – an enclosed model village complete with huts and plants – the scientists used an oil emulsion to attach the fungus spores to a black cotton sheet, which they hung in a chamber.

Of the 1,500 adult mosquitoes released into the space, just 13 were still alive 45 days later. “Simply applying the transgenic fungus to a sheet that we hung on a wall in our study area caused the mosquito populations to crash within 45 days,” Dr Lovett said. “And it is as effective at killing insecticide-resistant mosquitoes as non-resistant ones.” The scientists also said that the fungus only infects and attacks mosquitoes, so should not be a threat to other insect populations – though critics remain concerned that the deadly fungus could inadvertently kill other organisms and damage the balance of fragile ecosystems. “These fungi are very selective,” said Raymond St. Leger, a professor of entomology at UMD and co-author of the study. “They know where they are from chemical signals and the shapes of features on an insect's body. The strain we are working with likes mosquitoes. “It won't go to that trouble for other insects, so it's quite safe for beneficial species such as honeybees,” he added. The report added that as the fungus spores are large, sticky and sensitive to ultra-violet light, they would not naturally become airborne and spread. But Dr Wheetman said that the team also needed to confirm the safety of the modified fungus for livestock and humans in future trials. “It does seem that this is only effective in mosquito populations,” he said. “But it is warranted to suggest the safety of modified fungus needs to be confirmed for people and livestock.” Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
A study, published in the journal Science, finds a genetically enhanced fungus that produces spider toxin can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Trials held in Burkina Faso showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. The fungus did not affect other insects, such as bees.