Using bacteria to stop malaria

In Michigan, researchers with Michigan State University published a study in the current issue of Science shows that the transmission of malaria via mosquitoes to humans can be interrupted by using a strain of the bacteria Wolbachia in the insects. In a sense, Wolbachia would act as a vaccine of sorts for mosquitoes that would protect them from malaria parasites.

Treating mosquitoes would prevent them from transmitting malaria to humans, a disease that in 2010 affected 219 million people and caused an estimated 660,000 deaths. Zhiyong Xi, MSU assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics , stated, “We developed the mosquito line carrying a stable Wolbachia infection…We then seeded them into uninfected populations and repeatedly produced a population of predominantly Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes.”

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