Scientists with the National Institutes of Health in the United States have found a way to infect mosquitoes with bacteria in order to break the genetic transmission of malaria.
According to research published Thursday in the journal Science, the bacterial infection that would be introduced to mosquitoes is inheritable and could be passed on for as many as 34 generations of the aerial blood-suckers, rendering them immune to malaria parasites.
Scientists injected Anopheles mosquito embryos with Wolbachia and once the brood matured, they bred the adult females with uninfected males.
The infection endured for 34 generations of mosquitoes --- which is when the study wrapped up. So it's not known exactly how long the bacterial infection was carried through subsequent generations before it diminished, or if it's still going strong.
Researchers also tried introducing the bacterial infection in small numbers of adult mosquitoes, between 5 and 20 percent of the females in a given population.
Within eight generations in those applications, all of the mosquitoes ended up infected with the malaria-blocking infection.
The evidence supports the "potential of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes as a malaria control strategy," said the study.
Previous research showed the bacterium could prevent malaria-inducing Plasmodium parasites from developing in Anopheles mosquitoes.
But the new study demonstrated specifically for the first time that scientists could develop mosquitoes with a stable Wolbachia infection able to be passed consistently from mother to offspring.
Researchers also discovered that the infection killed malaria parasites in the mosquitoes' digestive systems as well as salivary glands, the main point of transmission to humans through bites.
A similar approach in some locations has helped cut back on the tropical disease dengue, also known as breakbone fever, which is also transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.
Researchers expect their new finding will help them reduce the spread of malaria among the most common mosquitoes in the Middle East and South Asia.
About 660,000 people worldwide die from malaria every year.
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