News (Scientific)

Currently, few antimalarial treatments exist that effectively kill liver-stage malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, which can lay dormant for months or even years. Researchers have reported a new drug that could eliminate liver-stage malaria parasites completely. Using an insect virus, known as a baculovirus, the researchers investigated the ability of baculovirus to mediate innate immunity against malaria infection. This work could pave the way for developing new and more effective antimalarial treatments.

They approach with the telltale sign -- a high-pitched whine. It's a warning that you are a mosquito's next meal. But that mosquito might carry a virus, and now the virus is in you. Now, with the help of state-of-the-art technology, researchers can see how a virus moves within a mosquito's body, which could lead to the prevention of mosquitoes transmitting diseases.

Researchers spent two years testing chemical compounds for their ability to inhibit the malaria parasite at an earlier stage in its lifecycle than most current drugs, revealing a new set of chemical starting points for the first drugs to prevent malaria instead of just treating the symptoms.

Researchers have generated six Zika virus antibodies that could be used to test for and possibly treat a mosquito-borne disease that has infected more than 1.5 million people worldwide.

Conversion from the asexual to the sexual phase of the malaria parasite is necessary for its transmission to the mosquito.

Malaria parasites know good times from bad and plan their offspring accordingly, scientists have found, in a development that could inform new treatments.

A balanced production of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines at two years of age protects against clinical malaria in early childhood, according to a new study. The results also indicated that early exposure to the parasite does not affect the risk of developing the disease, although it could affect the parasite-specific immune response later in life.

Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles are well known as primary vectors of malaria. But a new study suggests that Anopheles species, including some found in the United States, also are capable of carrying and transmitting an emerging pathogen, Mayaro virus, which has caused outbreaks of disease in South America and the Caribbean.

A new study shows for the first time the impact that climate change is having on the rate in which mosquitoes diversify, and what this might mean for human health in the future.

As the global battle against malaria stalls, scientists may be adding a novel tool to the fight: sniffer dogs. In recent tests trained sniffer dogs successfully diagnosed malaria infections simply by sniffing samples from socks worn briefly by children from a malaria endemic area of West Africa, according to a new study.

Thanks to an innovative mosquito control approach, residents in several Maryland neighborhoods reduced populations of invasive Asian tiger mosquitoes by an impressive 76 percent, on average.

Scientists investigating how the human immune system defends against malaria have uncovered a rare phenomenon: antibodies working together to bind to a vulnerable spot on the parasite.

To be able to reproduce and become effective disease carriers, mosquitoes must first attain optimal body size and nutritional status. A pair of researchers have succeeded in using CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful tool for altering DNA sequences and modifying gene function, to decrease mosquito body size, moving the research one step closer to eliminating mosquitoes that carry dengue fever and Zika virus.

Host decoy traps which mimic humans or cattle by combining odor, heat and a conspicuous visual stimulus could be effective at measuring and controlling outdoor-biting mosquitoes in malaria endemic regions.

An insulin-binding protein in fruit flies could provide new opportunities for tackling disease-carrying mosquitoes, such as malaria and yellow fever.

New research shows how the cyto-adhesion of plasmodium-infected red blood cells is enhanced at febrile temperatures.

Researchers have documented the permissible limits of a number of chemicals that are often part of anti-malarial efficacy tests. Their results provide a previously undetermined dataset on drug reconstitution conditions at which both the red cell integrity and plasmodium growth and proliferation are not compromised.

Scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine that prevents mosquitoes from spreading malaria among humans. This unique approach -- in which immunized humans transfer anti-malarial proteins to mosquitoes when bitten -- is called a transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV). A new biotech advancement moves us closer to this goal.

Malaria-infected red blood cells trigger the immune system's first line of defense by releasing small vesicles that activate a pathogen recognition receptor called MDA5, according to a new study.

A discovery may open up new ways to control steroid hormone-mediated processes, including growth and development in insects, and sexual maturation, immunity, and cancer progression in humans.