The drug Nisinone, designed against some rare diseases, makes human blood deadly for mosquitoes: to find out a study, published in the magazine Science Translational Medicineconducted by scientists from the University of Notre Dame and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The team, led by Lee R. Haines, evaluated the drug concentrations necessary to kill mosquitoes without causing damage to the human body. “Controlling the population of mosquitoes, explain the experts, is essential to counteract the diffusion and risks of malaria”.
Currently, there are several targeted approaches to reduce the number of insects, for example the ivectin antiparasitic drug. Although it reduces the life expectancy of the mosquitoes and contributes to reducing the risk of contagion, this medicine is toxic to the environment and promotes resistance in patients. Nisinone claims experts, it is used in the treatment of rare hereditary diseases, such as alcaptonuria and type 1 tyrosinemia, whose bodies have difficulty metabolizing tyrosine amino acid.
How nisinone works
When the mosquitoes drink blood containing nisinone, the drug blocks an enzyme necessary for mosquitoes to digest the blood, causing its rapid death. The research group has tested the effect on the mosquitoes females Anopheles Gambiae, the main species responsible for the spread of malaria in many African countries. According to what emerges from the investigation, Nisinone was toxic to mosquitoes of all ages and also for the most resistant species to traditional insecticides.
“In the future – says Haines – it may be advantageous to alternate both nisinone and ivemectin for mosquito control. For example, nisinone could be used in areas in which resistance to hermectin persists or in which Ivemectin is already widely used for cattle and human beings”.
Now the researchers intend to start a targeted experimentation to determine which nisinone dosages are most correlated to the anti -media effectiveness on the field. This drug could represent an effective and low cost control tool for the spread of malaria, but also used as insecticide.
Malaria can also return to Italy, that’s where the mosquitoes were hoping extinct