Anti-malarial mosquitoes were genetically created by scientists to stop spread of malaria. This study used a controversial technology on genetic editing.
The Guardian said that there are hundreds of genetically modified mosquitoes created by the scientists to help combat the spread of malaria to humans. These mosquitoes were said to have the incapacity to spread the disease unlike the usual types.
It was also mentioned that this move is part of the development of a powerful controversial technology named "gene drive" that tackles the solutions to stop the spread of malaria through forcing anti-malarial genes to wild mosquitoes.
These mosquitoes are engineered to carry antibodies that target specifically the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Researchers believe that if these two different insects breed, it will pass on the anti-malarial genes to their young. Thus, there would be sure increase in their population --- that fast.
According to the same source, there would be a massive and rapid transformation of the genetic makeup of the nature mosquito populations making it a dramatic tool to oppose the malarial spread and help save over 400,000 lives per year.
This kind of procedure is also claimed to be effective to fight other human diseases and infections that affect the crops.
University of California, Irvine Professor Anthony James said, "This is a significant step. The mosquitoes we created are not the final brand, but we know this technology allows us to efficiently create large populations."
His team used a genome editing procedure "Crispr-Cas9" to write the anti-malarial genes into the DNA of the mosquito eggs which belong to Anopheles stephensi.
To perfect the use of this genome editing procedure, Dr. Simon Bullock, a geneticist at the MRC's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge helped James' team.
He said, "Gene drive technology has great potential to help tackle malaria and other global problems in public health. But the ability of genetic changes to spread rapidly in the wild population means that great caution should be taken when building gene drive systems in the laboratory."
Albeit this technology can create a huge impact to fight infectious diseases, there is also a warning that the scientists are cautious about. Based from the prestigious journal Science made by the teams in the UK, US, Australia and Japan, this same technology might have an accidental release of modified organisms. This might bring unpredictable consequences.
"Accidental or malicious release of a gene drive system into the wild could have unpredictable ecological consequences and thus researchers must use multiple safeguards that are robust to human error and nefarious actions. Fortunately, several safeguarding strategies are already available," Bullock said.
So to prevent that, they are ensuring the experiments cannot escape from their labs and will only be released on purpose. But Bullock was surprised that the research team were not able to specify the safeguards.
He said, "Given the highly sensitive nature of this technology and their call of transparency in this area of research, I'm flabbergasted that the authors have not disclosed in the publication detailed information on the containment procedures used in this study and how they were evaluated."
Yet, Professor Anthony Shelton and Professor Gregory Lanzaro at University of California were optimistic to the containment procedures done by the California-based team.