why female Anopheles Mosquito being a vector of Malaria carrying the pathogen plasmodium never gets Malaria disease rather than human being gets malaria
why female Anopheles Mosquito being a vector of Malaria carrying the pathogen plasmodium never gets Malaria disease rather than human being gets malaria
Consider it poetic justice. Mosquitoes succumb to the parasite that causes malaria just like people do. But many are able to fight off the infection. Now researchers have figured out how the insect's immune system conquers the parasite—knowledge that could be used to combat the spread of malaria in humans.
An insect's immune system doesn't work like ours. It's not designed to adapt to specific threats over time, though it can still learn to fight off infections. This is evinced by the fact that many mosquitoes are able to fight off Plasmodium, the single-celled microbe that causes malaria. But researchers don't know exactly how insects do this.
To find out, vector biologist Janneth Rodrigues and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, fed two groups of mosquitoes mouse blood crawling with Plasmodium. One group became infected, but the other—placed in a room too hot for Plasmodium to grow—did not. Seven days later, the researchers fed both groups the Plasmodium-infected mouse blood again. The infected group was up to 10 times better at killing the Plasmodium.
Consider it poetic justice. Mosquitoes succumb to the parasite that causes malaria just like people do. But many are able to fight off the infection. Now researchers have figured out how the insect's immune system conquers the parasite—knowledge that could be used to combat the spread of malaria in humans.
An insect's immune system doesn't work like ours. It's not designed to adapt to specific threats over time, though it can still learn to fight off infections. This is evinced by the fact that many mosquitoes are able to fight off Plasmodium, the single-celled microbe that causes malaria. But researchers don't know exactly how insects do this.
To find out, vector biologist Janneth Rodrigues and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, fed two groups of mosquitoes mouse blood crawling with Plasmodium. One group became infected, but the other—placed in a room too hot for Plasmodium to grow—did not. Seven days later, the researchers fed both groups the Plasmodium-infected mouse blood again. The infected group was up to 10 times better at killing the Plasmodium.
