“In collaboration with John Marshall from the University of California, Berkeley, we worked with data generated from experiments with transgenic mosquitoes to understand the mechanisms governing the spread of the genetic trait in populations over several generations.”
In Brazil, the main malaria vector is Anopheles darlingi, predominant in the Amazon. It is still unknown whether the same FREP1 gene variant would have the same effect in this species. According to Corder, preliminary discussions are already underway to form a research group to investigate the potential of this approach with local mosquitoes and parasites.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2023 there were more than 260 million cases of malaria and nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide. Despite traditional methods such as insecticide-treated bed nets and early diagnosis and treatment, the global incidence of the disease has remained stagnant for about a decade.
“That’s why new control methods are necessary. These genetic strategies are promising because they can reduce transmission capacity without having to eliminate mosquito populations – which tends to be less ecologically aggressive,” concludes Corder.
The article Driving a protective allele of the mosquito FREP1 gene to combat malaria is available at this link.
*From the ICB Communications Office, adapted for Jornal da USP
**Intern supervised by Moisés Dorado
English version: Nexus Traduções, edited by Denis Pacheco
