Mosquitoes vs Science

Mosquitoes season in Malaysia is back, although it brings irritation and annoying buzz to our daily lives now but recently our researchers have bring new light to our lives. Below are the good news.

1) Flightless Mosquitoes.
That day I told my friends about this and he asks how? And another friend answer, by pulling out it's wings... I wanted to tell him that he was half-correct but that will lead me to explain more...
Common knowledge: Only female mosquitoes bites.
Molecular biologist Anthony James manage to genetically altered mosquitoes to produce flightless females, and said spreading these defective mosquitoes could suppress native, disease-spreading mosquitoes within six to nine months. James's team, including a group from the British biotechnology firm Oxitec Ltd., altered mosquito genes to disrupt development of the insects' wing muscle. The genetic modification grounded only the virus-carrying females and did not affect the males' ability to fly, they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The idea would be to distribute tens of thousands of eggs that would hatch out these genetically modified males, that would proceed to create a new generation of flightless, and thus doomed, daughters.

Mosquito bites carry key vaccine for malaria
2) Mosquitoes in the future carries VACCINE.
Yup. Your eyes doesn't deceive you. Mosquito-borne scourge is responsible for the deaths of nearly a million children under age 5 each year — mostly in Africa — killing one child every 30 seconds.
How? - There are 2 different stories both sounds convincing.
In US, an antigen named AnAPN1 which creates a type of antibody that fights malaria is used. By allowing some malaria-infected mosquitoes to bite on some volunteers which AnAPN1 exists in their body. The AnAPN1 starts attacking on the malaria virus and hence stop it before it gets on our skin. Learn more at Times
In Europe, a drug called chloroquine is used to inject into mosquitoes. Scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a "vaccine" of live malaria parasites via their bites.The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later.scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a "vaccine" of live malaria parasites via their bites.The study was only a small proof-of-principle test, and its approach is not practical on a large scale. Yes the more it bite on you the healthier you get... Hehe...

I think in the future there'll be less complaints about mosquitoes and more complaints about cockroach... Cause cockroach is the only living thing that cannot be extinct in this world. Hope you enjoy reading this. Please leave me a comment if you don't like these kind of post.

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