Credit: CDC
A bacterium isolated from a mosquito’s gut could aid the fight against malaria and dengue, according to a study published in PLOS Pathogens.
With previous research, scientists isolated Csp_P, a member of the family of chromobacteria, from the gut of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Now, the team has found that Csp_P can directly inhibit malaria and dengue pathogens in vitro and shorten the life span of the mosquitoes that transmit both diseases.
George Dimopoulos, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and his colleagues examined Csp_P’s actions on both mosquitoes and pathogens, and the results suggest that Csp_P might help to fight malaria and dengue at different levels.
The researchers added Csp_P to sugar water fed to mosquitoes and found that the bacteria are able to quickly colonize the gut of the two most important mosquito disease vectors—Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae.
Moreover, the presence of Csp_P in the gut reduced the susceptibility of the respective mosquitoes to infection with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum or with dengue virus.
Even without gut colonization, exposure to Csp_P through food or breeding water shortened the lifespan of adult mosquitoes and mosquito larvae of both species.
When the researchers tested whether Csp_P could act against the malaria or dengue pathogens directly, they found that the bacterium, likely through the production of toxic metabolites, can inhibit the growth of Plasmodium at various stages during the parasite’s life cycle and also abolish dengue virus infectivity.
The team said these toxic metabolites could potentially be developed into drugs to treat malaria and dengue.
Overall, the researchers concluded that Csp_P’s broad-spectrum antipathogen properties and ability to kill mosquitoes make it a good candidate for the development of novel control strategies for malaria and dengue, so it warrants further study.
