Malaria 'completely stopped' by microbe

[muriel_volestrangler]

The malaria-blocking bug, Microsporidia MB, was discovered by studying mosquitoes on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. It lives in the gut and genitals of the insects.

The researchers could not find a single mosquito carrying the Microsporidia that was harbouring the malaria parasite. And lab experiments, published in Nature Communications, confirmed the microbe gave the mosquitoes protection.

Microsporidias are fungi, or at least closely related to them, and most are parasites.

However, this new species may be beneficial to the mosquito and was naturally found in around 5% of the insects studied.

"The data we have so far suggest it is 100% blockage, it's a very severe blockage of malaria," Dr Jeremy Herren, from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52530828

A microsporidian impairs Plasmodium falciparum transmission in Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes

A possible malaria control approach involves the dissemination in mosquitoes of inherited symbiotic microbes to block Plasmodium transmission. However, in the Anopheles gambiae complex, the primary African vectors of malaria, there are limited reports of inherited symbionts that impair transmission. We show that a vertically transmitted microsporidian symbiont (Microsporidia MB) in the An. gambiae complex can impair Plasmodium transmission. Microsporidia MB is present at moderate prevalence in geographically dispersed populations of An. arabiensis in Kenya, localized to the mosquito midgut and ovaries, and is not associated with significant reductions in adult host fecundity or survival. Field-collected Microsporidia MB infected An. arabiensis tested negative for P. falciparum gametocytes and, on experimental infection with P. falciparum, sporozoites aren’t detected in Microsporidia MB infected mosquitoes. As a microbe that impairs Plasmodium transmission that is non-virulent and vertically transmitted, Microsporidia MB could be investigated as a strategy to limit malaria transmission.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16121-y

This is not completely new; a different microsporidian has been looked at before: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004676 . But they seem more excited by how effective this one is.

[mopinko]

1. dang. that's another order of magnitude in the study of biomes.

my jaw literally just dropped. for the last 20 years i have watched the science unfold on how the bugs that occupy our bodies work for us. i take a daily probiotic that effectively treats my longstanding gut issues.

but now this??!?!?!
miracles and wonder.

[abqtommy]

2. Alright! Two different sources provide factual confirmation!

see https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213388485