The Strategy of Paratransgenesis for the Control of Malaria Transmission

Abstract

Insect-borne diseases are responsible for important burdens on health worldwide particularly in Africa. Malaria alone causes close to half a million deaths every year, mostly in developing, tropical and subtropical countries, with 94% of the global deaths in 2019 occurring in the WHO African region. With several decades, vector control measures have been fundamental to fight against malaria. Considering the spread of resistance to insecticides in mosquitoes and to drugs in parasites, the need for novel strategies to inhibit the transmission of the disease is pressing. In recent years, several studies have focused on the interaction of malaria parasites, bacteria and their insect vectors. Their findings suggested that the microbiota of mosquitoes could be used to block Plasmodium transmission. A strategy, termed paratransgenesis, aims to interfere with the development of malaria parasites within their vectors through genetically-modified microbes, which produce antimalarial effectors inside the insect host. Here we review the progress of the paratransgenesis approach. We provide a historical perspective and then focus on the choice of microbial strains and on genetic engineering strategies. We finally describe the different steps from laboratory design to field implementation to fight against malaria.

Diversity of Wolbachia infections in Sri Lankan mosquitoes with a new record of Wolbachia Supergroup B infecting Aedes aegypti vector populations

“…Its application is enormous and promising for agricultural pests such as fruit flies; flea beetle, Aphthona spp., to control leafy spurge 1 ; house fly, Musca domestica , and stable fly, Stomoxys calcitran s 2 . In addition, this approach has been practiced for medically important vector control programs including Aedes vectors 3 – 5 ; and paratransgenesis of Wolbachia is being considered for use in mosquitoes to reduce the spread of malaria 6 and in tsetse fly to reduce the spread of sleeping sickness 7 . Moreover, other mosquito species, such as Aedes polynesiensis (South Pacific) 8 , Aedes albopictus (Italy) 9 , and Culex quinquefasciatus (southwestern Indian ocean) 10 , have also been field tested to determine the feasibility of using Wolbachia -based population suppression technology in the near future.…”

Two promising candidates for paratransgenesis, Elizabethkingia and Asaia, increase in both sexes of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes after feeding

“…They are particularly predominant in the midgut and reproductive tissues, making them applicable through feeding strategies such as sugar baits [ 20 , 21 ]. The large-scale field implementation of microbes for the control of adult mosquitoes is yet to be realized for several reasons including identifying the most cost-effective and sustainable symbiont to use, efficient mode of delivery, and environmental and ecological considerations [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Assessing Survival of Transgenic Bacteria, Serratia AS1 and Enterobacter cloacae, in Sugar Bait, White Saxaul Plant (Haloxylon persicum) and Rodent Barrow’s Soil, A Contained-Field Study for Paratransgenesis Approach

“…It offers a more targeted method compared to traditional control such as insecticides that kill insects regardless of whether they are useful or not. However, research on paratransgenesis against parasitic diseases such as leishmaniasis is in its early stages, and there are some challenges, such as finding an effective delivery system for introducing the transgenic microorganisms to vectors, which should be solved before this approach can be used as a practical control strategy (2)(3)(4).…”