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A drug approved to handle rarified inherited disease can also make human blood toxic to the mosquitoes that diffuse malaria , a fresh discipline find .
The drug , called nitisinone , is currently used to treattwo genetical weather condition : tyrosinemia type 1 andalkaptonuria . The drug works by conquer an enzyme call 4 - hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase ( HPPD ) , which is involved in a chain of chemical response known as the tyrosine detoxification pathway . By blocking the enzyme , nitisinone prevents the accumulation of harmful chemical in the trunk of patients with these genetic conditions .
A new study suggests that a drug called nitisinone can make human blood lethal to mosquitoes that spread malaria.
Butrecent researchhas also shown that line - sucking insects — including mosquitoes in the genusAnopheles , which spread thePlasmodiumparasites behindmalaria — need HPPD to condense their line of descent meals .
Now , a sketch published March 26 in the journalScience Translational Medicineprovides early evidence to suggest that regale human roue with nitisinone make the rip lethal toAnophelesmosquitoes . By mess with the HPPD enzyme , the drug effectively makes it so mosquitoes ca n’t detoxify an amino acid found in bloodline , ring tyrosine , so they die after corrode .
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Malaria is caused by parasites that are spread by mosquitoes when they feed on human blood.
With further inquiry , nitisinone could potentially be repurposed as a newfangled malaria - ascendancy method , the scientists behind the research hope . machinate additional control method could be particularly helpful given that mosquitoes are becomingever more insubordinate to the traditional insecticidesused to kill them .
That read , nitisinone is not a " silver fastball , " said study co - authorAlvaro Acosta - Serrano , a professor of molecular parasitology and vector biology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana . The drug will not prevent multitude from getting infected with malaria , nor cure masses who are already infected , he told Live Science . But nitisinone could lose weight the transmittal of the disease by shrinking the universe of mosquitoes that carryPlasmodiumparasites , he said .
In the new study , the researchers ran several lab experiments to determine the minimal concentration of nitisinone that would be needed to killAnophelesmosquitoes . Using the lowest venereal disease possible can help reduce the risk of infection of potential side outcome in people admit the drug , as well as decrease the likeliness that mosquitoes would become resistant to it over prison term , Acosta - Serrano say .
The investigator found that whenAnophelesmosquitoes were give human rip samples contain nitisinone , the worm died . This was true no matter of whether the mosquitoes were resistant to traditional insect powder .
In another experiment , the research worker modeled how nitisinone stacked up against ivermectin , a unwashed drug used to treat variousparasitic diseasesin humans , including malaria ; it ’s intended to pop parasites in the body but not to kill mosquito that bite multitude . The squad bump that nitisinone was more effective than ivermectin at kill mosquitoes .
A unmarried acid of nitisinone ( around 0.1 mg per kg of consistence weight ) could make someone ’s blood deadly to mosquitoes for around five days , they found . However , no mosquito death rate was observed for " any single dose of ivermectin , " the team report .
In a disjoined analysis , the researchers flow mosquito profligate sample from three patients with alcaptonuria who regularly took 2 mg of nitisinone a day . All of the mosquitoes died within 12 hours of feeding . Blood from a patient with alcaptonuria who had not begin the treatment was not toxic to mosquito .
Taken together , these findings intimate that nitisinone therapy could be a promising young malaria - control method . However , the researchers monish that there are still many hurdling to overwhelm before the drug could be used for this purpose .
For example , the prophylactic of nitisinone still needs to be tested in healthy individuals in the general population , peculiarly those who go in areas of the worldwhere malaria is common . If the drug were to be used for malaria control , it would be taken by mass who otherwise have no need for the intervention , so it would have to have very minimal or no side effects to be deserving it .
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Scientists will also have to test how nitisinone interact with coarse antimalarial drugs , which would still be need to handle patients with malaria .
Finally , the exact reasons why blocking the tyrosine detoxification pathway is deadly to blood - feeding insects are still unknown , Acosta - Serrano said . Understanding nitisinone ’s mechanism of action would help scientists omen how easily mosquito could become immune to the drug , he tally .
This clause is for informational purposes only and is not have in mind to put up medical advice .
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