by Abdoulaye Diabate faced life-threatening malaria when he was just five years old. Diabate narrowly survived the mosquito-borne disease, but his three- and four-year-old cousins were not so lucky.
Diabate, now head of medical entomology and parasitology at the Burkina Faso Research Institute of Health Sciences, is developing an innovative technique that could eliminate malaria-transmitting mosquito species by altering their genes.
The Burkina Faso-born scientist and professor was awarded the 2023 Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management for his research, which organizers said “offers hope for malaria control.”
Diabate was named in September as the only African among 10 global winners of this year’s prestigious award and was also recognized by the Falling Walls Foundation for “some of the most advanced work in the world on genetic solutions to malaria promotion”.
The Falling Walls Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering cutting-edge thinking.
Main cause of death
Malaria is a leading cause of death in the Diabate country, where nearly all of West Africa’s 22 million inhabitants, especially children, are at risk of the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Malaria killed almost 19,000 people in Burkina Faso in 2021, the latest data from the WHO regional office for Africa showed.
The disease is also one of the leading causes of death in the wider African region, which shoulders the largest malaria burden in the world.
For decades, malaria control interventions, including the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, have helped reduce transmission and deaths in affected countries.
However, “malaria deaths remain unacceptably high, and cases have been increasing since 2015,” WHO said in April, adding that the increase in infections was due to the increased cost of malaria. provide those interventions as well as the enabling “biological threats”. Drug resistance and vector mosquitoes help develop immunity to insecticides.
Malaria killed around 619,000 people worldwide in 2021, according to the latest data published by WHO.
About 96% of those deaths occurred in Africa, the health body said, adding that 80% percent of casualties on the continent were “among children under 5 years of age.”
Diabate told CNN that the innovation of malaria control tools was the only way to defeat the disease.
“Although bed nets are doing a great job … we now have widespread insecticide resistance in the various species of mosquitoes, especially those that transmit malaria,” he said.
“This makes it difficult to defeat malaria with these conventional tools. That is why it is very important to be innovative and find new tools that can complement the existing ones. (Otherwise) we would not be able to defeat malaria.”
the ‘game changer’
Diabate said he is optimistic that his vector control tool for malaria – known as “gene drive technology” – could be a “game changer” when implemented.
Malaria is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes that are infected with the parasitic disease. Male mosquitoes do not bite and are unable to transmit malaria.
With gene drive, female mosquito species that transmit the disease are prevented from producing new female offspring by releasing genetically engineered males that are rendered sterile into the environment.
Diabate said the female mosquito population would be reduced and the transmission of malaria would be stopped.
“When the (transgenic) mosquitoes are released in the field … they will spread throughout the entire mosquito population and immediately reduce malaria transmission,” he said, adding that it is a more sustainable and harmless malaria control intervention for the budget that was in the gene drive.
“The genetically modified mosquitoes are the ones that will do the work for you … unlike the other (malaria control) interventions where people go from place to place to deliver.
“The good thing about this technology that we are developing is that if it works as expected, it will not only be cost-effective, but it will also be sustainable and can be deployed in remote and difficult areas access them in Africa. . We believe that once the technology is ready and we release it and it works as expected, it should be able to be the game changer.”
However, it may take a few more years to roll out gene drive technology in Africa, Diabate said.
In 2019, the Diabate vector control research consortium, Target Malaria, completed the first phase of the project by releasing Africa’s pioneering batch of genetic mosquitoes in Bana, a village in Western Burkina Faso.
More than 14,000 sterile male mosquitoes were released the same day during the controlled release, according to Target Malaria, which added that 527 of the released mosquitoes were recaptured after 20 days.
“While the release was not aimed at influencing malaria transmission, it was a stepping stone for the team to gather information, build knowledge, and develop local skills, the research alliance also said in a blog post, adding to the analysis this and the data collected. providing valuable insights that we are already using in the next stages of our research.”
Similar projects focused on the DNA of mosquitoes.
In 2013, a US biotech company, Oxitec, developed genetically modified mosquitoes that pass a lethal gene to a female species of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits yellow fever, as well as the dengue and Zika viruses.
The offspring of the genetically modified female mosquitoes die in the larval stage.
In 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency also launched an X-ray-powered technique to sterilize male mosquitoes in Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at reducing the reproduction of female offspring that transmit Zika.
Diabate’s research appears to be among the first to use gene editing to target male mosquitoes.
Ecological concerns
Diabetes gene drive technology has been welcomed by health authorities outside of Burkina Faso, but questions remain about its impact on the environment once it is fully released.
Lubani Munthali, program manager for Malawi’s National Malaria Control Program, told CNN that while gene drive technology is “a good innovation coming at the right time,” its ecological impact is unknown.
“Gene drive technology has to involve modifying genetic materials … so you never know what new vector you’re going to have and what this will mean for the environment or the ecology,” he said. “It’s something that researchers need to look at.”
The German advocacy group Save Our Seeds (SOS) is campaigning strongly against gene drive technology, saying its impact on ecosystems is unpredictable.
“Every living creature, even if it seems dangerous or harmful to humans, performs important tasks in its habitat,” SOS said on its website. “The extinction or even manipulation of species will have consequences for the entire ecosystem,” he said.
The advocacy group explained that mosquitoes are among the main sources of food for many animals such as birds and dragonflies, reminding them that “in the Camargue, a nature reserve in the south of France, the extermination of mosquitoes with a biological pesticide decreased … in the number and variety of birds and dragonflies.”
Diabate told CNN that “specific concerns” about gene drive technology will be factored into the project’s development process.
CNN reached out to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for comment on the safety of gene drive technology.
Diabate said he has dedicated his life to the fight against malaria, which he said has taken a toll on his personal life.
“Malaria has affected every aspect of my personal life: from the disease that nearly killed me as a child to taking care of my family every time they get sick. I therefore decided to dedicate my life to the fight against this disease that hinders the development of Africa and breaks the future of millions of African lives,” he said.
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