Killing Zika Virus Carrying Mosquitoes with Gene Drives?

Genetically engineering out the lives of pests is not a new idea. The idea of leveraging sexual reproduction to pass specific gene changes (mutations or alterations) through entire populations to control pests has been proposed as far back as the 1940s, for example, A Strain of the Mosquito Aedes aegypti Selected for Susceptibility to the Avian Malaria Parasite Plasmodium lophurae.
Evolutionary geneticist Austin Burt was credited with the method of cutting DNA to reduce populations of disease-spreading species and the associated idea of “Gene drives”. The central idea behind a gene drive is to ensure that the engineered module stands a high probability of being passed onto offspring, such that the genetic module can be spread through the population. We can “drive” a genetic mutation into an entire population.
“How do we do this?”
Imagine if we can genetically engineer the virulence out of mosquito bites — nay, let’s engineer the future lives out of an entire species of the worst offenders (these would be the aegypti mosquitoes) — and free our communities of chemical pesticides! Kill the pests but spare our environment!
That is what Oxitec is working on. The company is harnessing a pathway that has been explored for killing cancer cells to genetically engineer male aegypti mosquitoes. Male aegypti mosquitoes live long enough to mate with female aegypti mosquitoes in the wild. Males pass along what amounts to a ticking time bomb genetic sequence to their femal...

Source: NAKEDMEDICINE.COM - June 27, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jane Chin Tags: Science and Research Source Type: blogs