New method proposed to fight mosquitoes

TUCSON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are proposing a new technique to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as malaria and the West Nile virus.

The researchers, led by University of Arizona-Tucson Professor Roger Miesfeld, discovered the mosquito species Aedes aegypti has a metabolic pathway requiring the excretion of toxic nitrogen after the insect gorges on human blood. If the mosquito fails to do so, it will also fail to lay eggs and likely sicken and die.

The scientists are seeking a molecule that will affect the mosquito metabolism, forcing the insects to retain the nitrogen, killing both the mosquitoes and their would-be progeny.

Such a molecule -- and similar ones aimed at other mosquito species -- could be developed into an insecticide, the scientists said, with pills even developed containing such molecules.

"The whole community would essentially become one big mosquito trap," Miesfeld said, noting over time, mosquito populations and disease rates would both decline. "This would be one more weapon in our arsenal against diseases that kill millions of people a year."

The study that included researchers Patricia Scaraffia, Guanhong Tan, Jun Isoe, Vicki Wysocki and the late Michael Wells appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.