Abdoulaye Diabate suffered a life-threatening bout of malaria when he was just five years old. Diabate barely survived the mosquito-borne disease, but cousins aged three and four were not so lucky.
Diabate, who is now head of medical entomology and parasitology at the Burkina Faso Research Institute in Health Sciences, is developing an innovative technique that could potentially eradicate malaria-transmitting mosquito species by altering their genes.
The Burkina Faso-born scientist and professor received the Falling Walls Prize for Science and Innovation Management in 2023 for his research, which according to the organizers ‘offers hope for malaria control’.
Diabate was named in September as the only African among the 10 global winners of this year’s prestigious award and was also recognized by the Falling Walls Foundation for “contributing to some of the world’s most advanced work on genetic solutions for malaria.”
The Falling Walls Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing breakthrough thinking.
A major cause of death
Malaria is a leading cause of death in the country of Diabate, where almost all of the West African country’s 22 million residents, 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, according to the latest data from the WHO’s regional office for Africa.
The disease is also one of the leading causes of death in the wider African region, which carries the largest malaria burden in the world.
For years, 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 the number of cases has continued to increase since 2015,” the WHO said in April, adding that the rise in infections was due to the rising costs of providing these interventions and to the “biological threats” that make this possible. drug resistance and vector mosquitoes help develop immunity to insecticides.
Malaria killed an estimated 619,000 people worldwide in 2021, according to the latest published WHO data.
About 96% of these deaths occurred in Africa, the health agency said, adding that 80% of victims on the continent “were among children under 5 years of age.”
Diabate told CNN that innovative malaria control tools were the only way to defeat the disease.
“Although mosquito nets do a fantastic job… we now have widespread resistance to insecticides among different species of mosquitoes, especially those that transmit malaria,” he said.
“This makes it difficult to defeat malaria with these conventional means. Therefore, it is extremely important to innovate and get new tools that can complement the existing ones. (Otherwise) there would be no way we could beat malaria.”
The ‘game changer’
Diabate said he is optimistic that his malaria vector control tool – described as “gene drive technology” – could be the “game-changer” when it is rolled out.
Malaria is transmitted through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes infected with the parasitic disease. Male mosquitoes do not bite and therefore cannot transmit malaria.
Gene drive prevents female mosquito species that transmit the disease from producing new female offspring by releasing genetically modified males that are released sterile into the environment.
Diabate said the female mosquito population would be depleted and malaria transmission would be stopped.
“When the (gene-edited) mosquitoes are released into the field… they will spread to the entire mosquito population and immediately reduce malaria transmission,” he said, adding that gene drive was a more sustainable and budget-friendly malaria control intervention.
“It’s the genetically modified mosquitoes that do the work for you… unlike the other (malaria control) interventions where people run from place to place to give birth.
“The good thing about this technology 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 hard-to-reach areas of Africa. . We believe that once the technology is ready, we release it and it works as expected, it could be the game-changer.”
However, it may still take a few years for gene drive technology to be rolled out in Africa, Diabate said.
In 2019, Diabate’s vector control research alliance, Target Malaria, implemented the first phase of the project by releasing Africa’s pioneer batch of genetically modified mosquitoes in Bana, a village in Western Burkina Faso.
More than 14,000 sterile male mosquitoes were released on 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 intended to impact malaria transmission, it was a stepping stone for the team to gather information, build knowledge and develop local skills,” the research alliance further said in a blog post, adding “This analysis and the data collected provides invaluable insights that we are already using in the next phases of our research.”
There have been similar projects focusing on mosquito DNA.
In 2013, an American biotech company, Oxitec, developed gene-modified mosquitoes that pass a lethal gene to female species of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits yellow fever, as well as the dengue and Zika viruses.
The offspring of the gene-modified female mosquitoes die in the larval stage.
In 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency also launched an X-ray 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 one of the first to use gene editing to target male mosquitoes.
Ecological concerns
Health authorities outside Burkina Faso have welcomed Diabate’s gene drive technology, but questions remain about its impact on the environment when fully released.
Lumbani Munthali, program manager for Malawi’s National Malaria Control Program, told CNN that while gene drive technology is “a good innovation that comes at the right time,” its ecological impact is unknown.
“Gene drive technology involves modifying genetic materials… so you never know what new vector you’re going to get and what it will mean for the environment or ecology,” he said. “It’s something that researchers need to look at.”
Germany-based advocacy group Save Our Seeds (SOS) has campaigned vigorously against gene drive technology, saying its impact on ecosystems cannot be predicted.
“Every living creature, even if it seems dangerous or harmful to humans, performs important tasks in its habitat,” SOS said on its website. “The eradication or even manipulation of a species will therefore have consequences for the entire ecosystem,” it added.
The advocacy group explained that mosquitoes are among the main food sources for many animals such as birds and dragonflies, while recalling that “in the Camargue, a nature reserve in southern France, the decimation of mosquitoes with a biological pesticide… led to a reduction in the mosquito population. in the number and diversity of birds and dragonflies.”
Diabate told CNN that “specific concerns” about gene drive technology will be considered “in the development process” of the project.
CNN has contacted the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for comment on the safety of gene drive technology.
Diabate said he dedicated his life to fighting malaria, which he said took a toll on his personal life.
“Malaria has affected every aspect of my personal life, from almost dying from the disease as a toddler to caring for my loved ones every time they get sick. “I have therefore decided to dedicate my life to the fight against this disease that is stifling Africa’s development and destroying the future of millions of African lives,” he said.
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