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With Zika virus on the rise in parts of South and Central America , expert are seek new ways to curb the bedcover of the potentially dangerous virus .
The Zika viruscan cause an infection with mild symptoms , but experts are concerned that infections in pregnant women may lead to a condition call microcephaly in their children . Microcephaly affects the brain and badly impacts a child ’s cognitive growing . On Feb. 1 , the World Health Organization announce that microcephaly maybe linked to the Zika virus constitutes apublic wellness parking brake .
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito, a carrier of the Zika virus, feeds on human blood.
Although not yet modernize , a vaccine has the potentiality to bid widespread protectionagainst the virus for people who come into physical contact with it . But another possible means of preventing the spread of Zika is to aim the mosquito that carries the computer virus , in hopes of forbid bites — and exposure to the virus — in the first position . One way of doing this would be to utilise insecticides to do away with the mosquitoes ; however , another technique that is gain popularity is the use of genetically modified mosquitoes . [ Zika Virus FAQs : Top Questions Answered ]
By manipulating certain genes in the mosquito , scientist can cause the universe to crash ( or , in other watchword , die off ) , said Anthony James , a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California , Irvine .
This is the genic equivalent of an insect powder , James told Live Science .
There are several elbow room to do this . One alternative is to stick in a lethal gene into the sperm of manly mosquitoes that causes their materialization to die before they hand adulthood , James order . Another alternative is to misrepresent the factor in the females so that they ca n’t fly — and therefore do n’t find mates — and leave no offspring , he said .
Aside from these " universe curtailment " approach , scientists are also bet into a method called " population successor . " Using population replacement , scientists would tweak a gene so as to reduce the mosquito ’s power to transfer a pathogen , he say .
This technique has been tested inmosquitoes that carry the parasite that causes malaria , James say . However , it ’s a less democratic thought in the fight against a flavivirus such as the Zika virus , because rather than target just one flavivirus , a research worker would desire to direct all of them , which would involve sufficient engine room , he allege . Other flavivirus carry by mosquitoes includedengue , icteric fever andchikungunya .
Indeed , with the Zika computer virus , the population - suppression technique is simpler , James said . By eliminating the mosquitoes that carry flaviviruses , charge per unit of all of these disease would set down , he say .
presently , one British company called Oxitec has a strain ofAedes aegyptimosquitoes ( one of the species that carry flaviviruses ) that can be used to suppress the universe using males that hold a deadly gene .
The mosquito were designed to reduce the spread of the dengue virus , but because the same mosquito carry Zika , they could cultivate for the Zika virus as well , James said .
Field test of these mosquito are currently taking place in Brazil , according to the party .
One likely downside to population suppression is that it could impress " nontarget " populations . In other words , researchers reckon whether killing off a universe will touch on others in the area — for example , those that rely on that coinage for food .
But this is n’t a trouble withAedes aegyptimosquitoes , James said . " It ’s authoritative to emphasize that [ A. aegypti ] are aninvasive coinage " in the Western Hemisphere , James said . That means that they are not a natural part of the ecosystem , and eliminating them could potentially have positive effects , as opposed to harming the ecosystem , he said .
There are also concerns about what would happen if the manipulated gene were transpose to another species . One mode to quash this is to manipulate the factor in the virile mosquitoes , which do not bite and therefore would n’t come into contact with other species , James say .
