The Beginning of Genome Editing Tools to End Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Abstract

Mosquitoes are prime vectors for various diseases like malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and zika which can make a person severely ill. Scientists around the world have developed treatments for the mosquito-borne diseases but the spread of disease has not been controlled enough. Therefore, scientists around the world have focused on the vector control mechanism by genome editing along with gene drive tools. CRISPR with gene drive tools was used to produce sterile the female mosquitoes that cause malaria and gradually eliminate them from the population. Another team of researchers have aimed at the fibrinogen-related protein 1 (FREP1) gene which is a broad-spectrum Plasmodium agonist and used CRISPR technology (Type II) for its knock out effects. ReMOT technology was used to produce mutation in malaria vector Anopheles stephensi by delivering Cas9 complex to adult mosquito ovary. By all these methods, although they are yet to be proved in commercial aspect, still these techniques have shown efficient and successful results in laboratory condition.