Researchers make mosquito discovery

Researchers at Virginia Tech believe they may have made an important discovery in the battle against mosquito-borne diseases.

A team led by assistant professors of entomology Zach Adelman and Kevin Myles set out to find the reason mosquitoes are able to carry viruses such as malaria and dengue fever without becoming sick themselves.

They discovered the insects' immune systems develop virus-derived short-interfering RNAs (viRNAs) when infected with viruses. These viRNAs protect the mosquito against the virus it is carrying.

Researchers were not able to find a way to tackle a mosquito's immune response, but noticed very different results when they changed the genome of the test virus used in the research.

Mr Myles said the findings suggested that changing the make up of mosquito-borne diseases could be a way of halting their spread among humans, although he admitted more research would be required.

Mr Adelman added: "We would still have mosquitoes biting us, but they would not be transmitting viruses."

Diseases borne by mosquitoes kill more than 100,000 people every year.

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