Fighting mosquitoes using mosquitoes. That is, transforming them into 'green insecticides' with immediate effect, to be used as needed to nip any outbreaks of infections such as the bud Dengue. And since it is females who transmit diseases, “our idea is to create Genetically modified male tiger mosquitoes in the laboratory which, released into nature, essentially kill them by mating with females of their species”. Killer loversunwitting killers. Paolo Gabrieli, biologist from the State University of Milan, explains to Adnkronos Salute the project he will carry forward thanks to one of the 3 scholarships of 150 thousand euros each assigned in recent days by the Inf-Act Foundation with the collaboration of the Armenise Foundation. Harvard. Grants intended for mid-career scientists, lab coats arriving 'in the middle of the road', too often overlooked by research funding.
Born in 1983, since graduating in Biology Gabrieli has dedicated himself to the study of insects that transmit human and animal pathologies. Arbovirosis: a growing emergency between globalization and climate change, a threat on which the attention of international health authorities is increasingly focused. After training and research experiences in Italy (universities of Pavia, Perugia and Milan) and abroad (Imperial College of London in the UK, Harvard School of Public Health in Boston in the USA), today the scientist is a professor of Zoology at UniMi. “L''Armenise-Harvard Inf-Act Mid-Career Award' – he states – it allows me to consolidate the research group and implement the new scientific approaches that I have imagined to control mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit in an eco-friendly way. It is also vitally important to collect new data and seek additional funding that will allow us to achieve the final goal.”
“The most effective technology against so-called vector-borne diseases – recalls Gabrieli – is the control of mosquitoes. Today, insecticides are used for this purpose, but they cause various problems: they can be toxic to the environment and human health, and more and more often they encounter insects that have become resistant to more than one product”. A bit like what happens with antibiotics, which when used too much and incorrectly favor the development of superbugs invulnerable to drugs, “the more we use chemical insecticides, the more we risk selecting populations of 'super mosquitoes' insensitive to their action. We therefore need alternatives to control mosquitoes in an eco-friendly way.”
The strategy conceived by Gabrieli and colleagues, it is inspired by the 'sterile insect technique' theorized in the 1950s. “The males of a species – explains the researcher – are taken, sterilized and released back into nature, where they mate with females of the same species who then lay sterile eggs”, i.e. they do not give birth. There are two problems: on the one hand “to reduce the overall population of that insect it takes time, you have to wait generations”, reasons the expert. On the other hand, “the females in circulation continue to bite humans or animals.” For female mosquitoes, in fact, ensuring a blood meal is essential to have the energy necessary for reproduction. And even if they don't become 'mothers' by mating with sterile males, they still lay eggs and therefore have to eat. Therefore “they continue to bite, therefore transmitting any infections at least for a certain period”.
“This means that this type of approach cannot be used in case of outbreaks – explains Gabrieli – because it works, but over time, on subsequent generations. Not immediately like the insecticide, but preventively, to lower the mosquito population in the future. The strategy we have devised, however, always acts on male mosquitoes, but allows us to control the population of female mosquitoes immediately.” As? “Through genetic modification techniques – describes the scientist – we create male insects which, released into nature, kill their females by mating”. In other words, with their 'deadly embrace' these killer males “work like an insecticide. But eco-friendly”. Mosquitoes against mosquitoes, males against females for good.
But Is extinction the prospect? “At this moment – explains Gabrieli – we are talking about studies confined to the laboratory. The aim of our work is to demonstrate that the technique can work in the immediate control of potentially infectious mosquito populations, attracting new funds to complete the project and transfer it from the bench to the field “. However, the biologist points out, “it must be considered that the tiger mosquito, the invasive species at the center of our studies, is a problem in Europe and is also becoming one in Italy. Most likely the autochthonous outbreaks of Dengue and Chikungunya that we have recorded are due precisely to the presence of the tiger mosquito in our country, because it is the only vector circulating in Italy capable of transmitting these diseases. And the approach envisaged by the EU is that, if we have the possibility of extinguishing invasive mosquito species, we must do so “.
“So here we need to make a distinction. The objective of our project is the control of the mosquito population – reiterates the researcher – but the “killer lover” technique can be declined based on contingent needs and the danger represented by the different species, pursuing different goals. However, we must remember that in reality – reflects Gabrieli – we will never be able to extinguish a species from planet Earth, probably not even to extinguish individual populations at a local or micro-local level. The focus is on control, because to effectively transmit an infection serves a certain number of mosquitoes determined by mathematical rules and models. If we keep the number of mosquitoes low enough, the cycle of transmission of the disease they carry is very unlikely.” The ultimate goal is this.
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