Transgenic mosquitoes to control vector-borne diseases

Abstract

The mosquito-borne diseases have achieved the world wide attention due to the high number of cases and deaths reported to WHO annually. Such diseases include malaria and dengue fever. Control of these diseases has been difficult due to drug resistance in parasites (e.g. malaria), insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, lack of effective vaccines and failure of the vector control strategies to minimize human-mosquito contact. As a novel approach for the rising situation, mosquito population replacement strategies and, genetic based mosquito population suppression and elimination strategies such as Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal (RIDL) gene have been introduced. Both strategies used for the development of transgenic mosquitoes (TMs). The development of TMs that have impaired competency to transmit pathogens or population suppression and elimination ability as result of alteration of genetics of mosquitoes is a promising approach that could potentially reduce threats exerted by mosquitoes to humans. The work carried out so far on TMs has shown successful results in the laboratory and open field release experiments indicating TMs to be the leading strategy in the future to control mosquito borne diseases.