Global Malaria News
Capturing mosquito waste could speed up virus detection
Public health officials could soon be able to detect viruses in mosquitoes in the wild much more quickly and easily -- thanks to the insect equivalent of a urine test. A new study shows that two kinds of commonly used mosquito traps can be readily modified to collect mosquito excreta, or liquid waste droplets, to be tested for signs of viruses.
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Modelled climate change impact on mosquito-borne virus transmission
Mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, already threaten over a billion people globally. A study predicts that climate change and rising global temperatures will lead to both increased and new exposures to humans of diseases carried by mosquito vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus.
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How mosquitoes smell human sweat (and new ways to stop them)
Female mosquitoes are known to rely on an array of sensory information to find people to bite, picking up on carbon dioxide, body odor, heat, moisture, and visual cues. Now researchers have discovered how mosquitoes pick up on acidic volatiles found in human sweat.
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Control of mosquito-borne diseases
Researchers have developed an innovative method for analyzing the genome of the Wolbachia bacterium. This endosymbiotic bacterium infects more than 70 percent of insects and is capable of influencing insect transmission of pathogens such as dengue or Zika virus.
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Neglected diseases continue to require attention despite progress
Few novel drugs have been developed to treat neglected diseases in recent decades, Brazilian researchers warn.
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Protecting homes with netting window screens can reduce malaria parasite infection
Protecting houses against mosquitoes with netting window screens can suppress malaria vector populations and dramatically reduce human parasite infection prevalence, according to new research.
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Potential new combination treatment for pancreatic cancer
Researchers have identified a possible new therapeutic strategy using two types of drug inhibitors at once to treat one of the world's deadliest cancers.
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New mobile element found in mosquito parasite has potential for disease control
An interdisciplinary team of scientists has identified a new mobile DNA element in the Wolbachia parasite, which may contribute to improved control strategies for mosquito vectors of diseases such as Dengue and West Nile virus.
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Anti-malarial shows promise in human clinical study
An experimental drug, called DSM265, cured seven volunteers of a Plasmodium falciparum infection, a malaria parasite that is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The goal of this research is to find a cure for malaria with a single dose, and ultimately, eradicate the parasite.
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Protection from Zika virus may lie in a protein derived from mosquitoes
By targeting a protein found in the saliva of mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus, investigators reduced Zika infection in mice. The finding demonstrates how researchers might develop a vaccine against Zika and similar mosquito-borne viruses, the study authors said.
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A quick path to antimalarial resistance
Resistance to antimalarial drugs is thought to result mainly from changes in the parasite's genome. However, P. falciparum can also develop resistance to some antimalarial compounds by epigenetic changes, according to a new study. This is of concern because resistance acquired at the epigenetic level can arise quickly, even during the course of a single infection.
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Earlier emergence of malaria in Africa
Malaria, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year -- mainly children and especially in Africa -, is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious agent, the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. In research on malaria, the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell anemia (also known as drepanocytosis), a chronic disease that is often fatal in children under five, caught the attention of the scientific community very early on because it also provides protection against malaria.
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Medicating mosquitoes to fight malaria
Mosquitoes that landed on surfaces coated with the anti-malarial compound atovaquone were completely blocked from developing Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria, according to new research.
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Mosquitoes that carry malaria may have been doing so 100 million years ago
The anopheline mosquitoes that carry malaria were present 100 million years ago, new research shows, potentially shedding fresh light on the history of a disease that continues to kill more than 400,000 people annually.
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Genome scientists develop novel approaches to studying widespread form of malaria
Scientists have developed a novel way with genome sequences to study and better understand transmission, treat and ultimately eradicate Plasmodium vivax, the most widespread form of malaria.
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Putting female mosquitoes on human diet drugs could reduce spread of disease
Researchers report that they have identified drugs that can reduce mosquito hunger for blood. Because movement of female mosquitoes from human to human -- male mosquitoes do not consume blood -- is the means by which mosquito-borne infections are passed along, researchers have theorized that reducing the frequency with which female mosquitoes feed is one way to lessen the spread of disease.
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Genome structure of malaria parasites linked to virulence
An international research has found that malaria parasite genomes are shaped by parasite-specific gene families, and that this genome organization strongly correlates with the parasite's virulence. The findings highlight the importance of spatial genome organization in gene regulation and the control of virulence in malaria parasites.
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Male birth control for the malaria parasite
Disrupting two genes involved in the preservation of RNA molecules inhibits the ability of the male form of the malaria parasite to mature and be transmitted from human blood into mosquitoes, interrupting a key stage in the parasite's life-cycle and cutting off an important step in the spread of the disease.
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Insecticide resistance genes affect vector competence for West Nile virus
In a context of overuse of insecticides, which leads to the selection of resistant mosquitoes, it is already known that this resistance to insecticides affects interactions between mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit. Researchers demonstrate that mechanisms of insecticide resistance, observed in Culex quinquefasciatus vector, impact the transmission of West Nile virus.
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To halt malaria transmission, more research focused on human behavior needed
Wherever possible, researchers should not just focus on mosquito behavior when working to eliminate malaria, but must also consider how humans behave at night when the risk of being bitten by an infected mosquito is highest.
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