The MalariaWorld Journal

This GCE project explored an RNAi strategy to control mosquitoes and prevent spread of mosquito-borne diseases. The strategy involved delivery of double-stranded RNA(dsRNA) elements to mosquito larvae using unicellular, transgenic algae as vectors. Significantly, microorganisms, including microalgae, are the primary source of nutrition for mosquito larvae in water bodies that serve as the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. This strategy of delivering RNA elements to suppress essential target genes in mosquito larvae has many potential advantages over existing technologies.

In this GCE project it was aimed to put a gene encoding a pathogen protein into a mosquito chromosome, causing it to express the protein in its saliva and inject it into animals orhumans during the blood-feeding process. It was anticipated that the host would develop antibodies to the recombinant protein. If transgenic mosquitoes whose saliva contained a vaccine protein against a disease are released in an area where the disease is prevalent, people that are bitten daily by these mosquitoes would develop antibodies to the vaccine protein, and ultimately the entire community would be ‘vaccinated’ against the disease. In this situation, mosquitoes would play the role of vaccine deliverers.

This is a review of Bill Jobin's book 'Improving the US Presidential Malaria Initiative'. It is mainly a review of PMI's first campaign in Angola in 2005/6. Jobin was directly involved in organising a large-scale indoor residual spraying campaign in the south of Angola and writes about the intricacies of getting such a campaign off the ground based on poor data, delays, and a myriad of other challenges. To come to a stunning conclusion: there was hardly any malaria in the region that was sprayed and essentially 2.1 million dollars of the first PMI campaign had gone to waste. Jobin adds a list of essential recommendations to improve the outcome of such campaigns in future. A must-read that can be ordered at Amazon.com.