United States: Medical experts developed a novel approach by adding a killing substance to human blood, which functions as lethal content for mosquitoes during their blood intake.
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The medical research team at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK demonstrated that nitisinone exhibits lethal properties towards mosquitoes when consumed from human blood at low concentrations.
Scientific tests demonstrated that mosquitoes that consumed blood from three nitisinone-medicated subjects died off within twelve hours.
The medical authority has granted administrative approval to use nitisinone for the treatment of specific rare hereditary illnesses.
Nitisinone blocks protein production to generate reductions of harmful disease products released in human tissue.
Fast-Acting Mosquito Elimination
Blood with nitisinone presents fatal consequences for mosquitoes after they take a drink.
According to the microbiologist Lee R. Haines from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, “One way to stop the spread of diseases transmitted by insects is to make the blood of animals and humans toxic to these blood-feeding insects,” sciencealert.com reported.
“Our findings suggest that using nitisinone could be a promising new complementary tool for controlling insect-borne diseases like malaria,” Haines reported.
Potential Risks & Future Research
Urgent caution should be applied regarding this treatment due to findings that confirm other chemical insecticides harm essential insects despite limited evidence the drugs will minimize malaria cases.
Research has shown that nitisinone fails to eliminate essential pollinators, yet investigators need to study its broader ecological effects, and there exist potential risks of insecticide resistance development if “mass drug administration programs” implement mosquito-killing medications.
The study tested how nitisinone concentrations in blood solutions affected mosquitoes through mathematical population models of human contact.
The researchers discovered that the drug killed all mosquito life stages, including older specimens, which represent the main carriers of malaria.
The study team evaluated nitisinone as an antiparasitic drug against already established diets using ivermectin, which acts as a potential tool to kill mosquitoes during feeding, sciencealert.com reported.