‘London Underground’ mosquito has surprisingly ancient origins
Culex pipiens molestus were notorious during the Second World War for biting Londoners sheltering from German air raids in the Underground’s tunnels and stations. The mosquito looks like the common house mosquito, Culex pipiens, but behaves very differently. For example, C. pipiens lives and breeds above ground, mates in swarms, bites birds and requires a blood meal before laying eggs. […]
Community benefits of mass distribution of three types of dual-active-ingredient long-lasting insecticidal nets against malaria prevalence in Tanzania: evidence from a 3-year cluster-randomized controlled trial
Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were once fully effective for the prevention of malaria; however, mosquitoes have developed resistance to pyrethroids, the main class of insecticides used on nets. Dual active ingredient LLINs (dual-AI LLINs) have been rolled out as an alternative to pyrethroid (PY)-only LLINs to counteract this. Understanding the minimum community usage at which […]
Transmission of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi during copulation
Entomopathogenic fungi engineered to express insect-specific neurotoxins have demonstrated potential as microbial control agents against malaria mosquitoes. Currently, the primary application method is via direct contact of spores with indoor resting mosquitoes. However, many malaria-transmitting mosquitoes feed and rest outdoors. To target these, we have developed an alternative application method that exploits the lethality of […]
The malaria parasite PP1 phosphatase controls the initiation of the egress pathway of asexual blood-stages by regulating the rounding-up of the vacuole
Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum infections remains a major human threat in endemic countries. Its proliferation within the host relies on the iteration of red blood cell invasion, multiplication and release of newly formed parasites in the blood circulation. This last step, named egress, is tightly regulated by a signaling pathway controlled by phospho-regulation. The phosphatase PP1 […]
How can modeling responsibly inform decision-making in malaria?
Mathematical models are sets of simplifying assumptions, based on current knowledge, about how the world works, followed to their logical (mathematical) conclusion. Different models make different sets of assumptions and are calibrated to different data sets. Models have been applied to problems in malaria for many years. A century ago, models provided the theoretical basis […]
Overexpression of multiple cytochrome P450 genes with and without knockdown resistance mutations confers high resistance to deltamethrin in Culex quinquefasciatus
The cytochrome P450s-mediated metabolic resistance and the target site insensitivity caused by the knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation in the voltage-gated sodium channel (vgsc) gene were the main mechanisms conferring resistance to deltamethrin in Culex quinquefasciatus from Thailand. This study aimed to investigate the expression levels of cytochrome P450 genes and detect mutations of the vgsc gene in deltamethrin-resistant Cx. quinquefasciatus populations in Thailand. Chamnanya, S., […]