CRISPR gene editing therapy has shown great ability to treat and treat diseases, but scientists are now discovering how it can be used to prevent them. A team of researchers found a way to edit the same gene in the mosquito, which prevented him from moving malaria. Nature. This genetically changing mosquitoes can eventually be released in the forest, which helps prevent some of the 600,000 malaria deaths each year.
With malaria, mosquitoes are affected annually, and efforts to reduce their population have been delayed late. The reason for this is that mosquitoes spreading malaria and their parasites have created resistance to pesticides and other drugs.
Now, biologists from UC San Diego, John Hopkins and UC Berkeley universities have found a way to stop malarial transmission by converting the same amino acids into mosquitoes. Changing mosquitoes can still cut malaria victims and pick up parasites with their blood, but now they cannot spread to others.
The system uses an unwanted amino acid (Elle) to cut the CRISPR-cas9 “scissor” that transmits malaria and converts it from a benign version. The unwanted Eli, called the L224, helps the parasites swim in the mosquito spit glands where they can affect a person. The new amino acid, Q224, prevents two separate parasites from making it into the gland of spit, which prevents infection in people or animals.
“With a single, precise adaptation, we have transformed into a powerful shield (a component of mosquito gene) that prevents many malaria parasites,” said George Demoploos, a researcher at John Hopkins University, and potentially adapts to different mosquitoes, and the world’s tactics.
Unlike previous methods of malarial control, changing this key gene does not affect mosquito health or reproduction capabilities. This allowed researchers to inherit the Q224 Eliel for mosquito children and to create a technique to spread their tracks through their population to prevent malarial parasitic transmission in their tracks. “We have used our genetic tools of nature to transform mosquitoes into allies against malaria,” said Demoplos.
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