Mosquito nose key to malaria fight
Updated on 30 August 2007
Research into how mosquitoes smell out their human prey could help scientists develop new insect repellents to stop the spread of malaria.
Researchers have found that a key part of the malaria mosquito's "nose" contains an array of highly specialised cells that detect the chemicals carbon dioxide and octenol.
The maxillary palps are sensitive to these substances, which the insects use to track down humans to bite, scientists wrote in the Current Biology journal.
While work on the maxillary palp of other types of mosquito has revealed similar findings, the malaria mosquito uses a different set of receptors which rely more on human-specific chemical compounds in seeking out hosts.
The scientists have mapped the specialised sensory organ which is one of three structures, along with the two antennae, that provide the insect with its sense of smell and taste.
The new information could be used to develop repellent to reduce the incidence of malaria - the most prevalent life-threatening disease in the world today.
Laurence J Zwiebel, the university's professor of biological sciences who headed the study, added: "We haven't proven it yet, but the implication is that if you took away the maxillary palp, the mosquito would not do nearly as well at finding human prey."
The research is funded by a grant under the Grand Challenges to Global Health initiative to develop a chemical strategy to combat the spread of malaria.
Prof Zwiebel said: "This paper marks a threshold in our grand challenge project because because it provides a biological context and then strips it down to a few molecular targets that we are using to develop chemical modifiers that should have direct impacts on the mosquito's behaviour."
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