The Goldilocks Dose: Modulating Mosquito Diet to Control Malaria
Feeding mosquitoes L-DOPA can either strengthen their defences against malaria or shorten their lifespan — showing that in vector control, the dose makes the difference Transcript As with all medicine, the dose determines whether something helps or harms. Researchers recently looked at a substance commonly found in mosquito habitats that might form part of their diet. It’s called L-3-4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, or L-DOPA. Mosquitoes use it as a source of melanin. At low doses – up to a concentration of 2% – L-DOPA was toxic to mosquitoes and reduced the number of malaria parasites they carry in a dose-dependent manner. At higher doses, toxicity was stronger and the mosquitoes’ rates of survival decreased, demonstrating what’s known as a biphasic dose response. These findings offer two potential strategies for L-DOPA in malaria control. Low doses fed to mosquitoes in water could improve their defences against the parasite, thereby reducing onward transmission to humans. Higher doses could be used to kill mosquitoes or reduce their life span, particularly if used in a sugar bait. These strategies align with the need for cost-effective, sustainable and eco-friendly vector control methods. For L-DOPA, it all comes down to the dose. Source Dietary L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) augments cuticular melanization in Anopheles mosquitos reducing their lifespan and malaria burden About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.
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SPECIAL: Hackathons for Malaria Genetic Epidemiology (with Bryan Greenhouse)
How do you turn vast amounts of genetic data into actionable insight – efficiently and accurately? Professor Bryan Greenhouse of UCSF discusses a series of “hackathons” at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) that bring together scientists from around the world to tackle one of the biggest challenges in malaria research: analyzing parasite genetics. By developing open-source tools, workflows, and training resources, these collaborations are making cutting-edge analysis more accessible to labs and public health programs everywhere.
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EXTENDED: From River Blindness to Malaria Control – The Ivermectin Story (with Carlos Chaccour and Joseph Mwangangi)
In Kwale, Kenya, where bed nets alone can’t stop malaria, researchers are testing ivermectin – a drug long used to treat parasitic infections – as a new way to kill mosquitoes. Trials show a 26% drop in malaria cases and added benefits against other mosquito-borne diseases, suggesting ivermectin could be a scalable, community-driven tool in the fight against insecticide resistance. With Carlos Chaccour (researcher at the Navarra Center for International Development) and Joseph Mwangangi (scientist at KEMRI) About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.
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Ivermectin’s Potential in the Fight Against Malaria
A new study in Kenya shows that mass drug administration of ivermectin safely reduced malaria cases by 26%, offering a promising supplement to insecticide-based prevention. Transcript Bed nets and insecticides are commonly used to prevent malaria transmission. But insecticide resistance is making those tools less effective. There’s a growing interest in ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug normally used to treat neglected tropical diseases such as river blindness or scabies, that is also capable of killing the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria. In a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from ISGlobal, an institute in Barcelona, investigated whether ivermectin given to at-risk populations en masse – in a policy of ‘mass drug administration’ – might supplement the use of insecticides to reduce malaria transmission. In Kwale, a coastal county in Kenya where malaria is present year-round, nearly twenty-nine thousand people took part. Half were given ivermectin at 400μg per kilogram of bodyweight. The other half were given 400mg of albendazole, not an antimalarial drug, but an anti-worming drug comparable to ivermectin. Each group took the drug once a month for three months. The study looked at both the efficacy and safety of the two interventions. Both drugs proved safe, but ivermectin had a greater impact, leading to a 26% reduction in malaria cases – higher than the 20% efficacy benchmark set by the World Health Organization. Source Source: Ivermectin to Control Malaria — A Cluster-Randomized Trial [NEJM] About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.
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EXTENDED: The Turning Point – What Drives Malaria to Become Severe? (with Mark Travassos, Mahamadou Ali Thera and Rafal Sobota)
Focusing on patients in Mali, researchers examine why some children develop life-threatening complications like cerebral malaria or severe malarial anemia. With Mark Travassos (University of Maryland School of Medicine), Mahamadou Ali Thera (University of Science Techniques and Technologies of Bamako), and Rafal Sobota (Northwestern University). About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.
Colombia