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| Fig. 1: Malaria-preventing mosquito nets. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
The 2018 World Health Organization World Malaria Report estimated that there are about 219 million cases of malaria worldwide. [1] Malaria remains one of the major tropical illnesses, killing more people than any other tropical disease other than tuberculosis; about 200-300 children die every hour in malaria-related deaths. [2] Yet, because of the less-regulated use of drug treatments, there is now a significant number of malaria strains that are drug resistant. [2] Currently, the best prevention strategy for malaria is to fend against these mosquitoes through layers of clothing or mosquito nets (see Fig. 1). [3] While these methods are able to create temporary solutions, they do not address the rampant mosquito problem in these tropical climates. Researchers and scientists have been looking into new solutions to this problem, such as the sterile insect technique and the NMR diagnosis tool.
Many organizations are now looking to developing nuclear technology that can effectively combat vector-borne diseases, such as malaria. [4] Because it is difficult to control the spread of mosquitoes, researchers have thought to limit the replication of these insects (Fig. 2). By using short bursts of severe radiation, scientists are able to severely damage the insect sperm, but maintain the viability of these insects. Because this technique relies on the numbers game, a region often needs to be exposed multiple times to these mosquitos. The challenges with transportation and delivery of these insects increase the difficulty of ensuring widespread impact of this technology. But recently, through the use of airborne vehicles such as drones, organizations are able to drop these sterile male mosquitoes into breeding areas of at-risk mosquitoes.
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| Fig. 1: The Aedes aegypti mosquito is a common carrier of malaria. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
While this technology has gained a lot of traction, there are still some hurdles that scientists are working through. Due to the targeting of the reproductive pathway, this technology is not self-sustaining, requiring the production of a high number of these infertile mosquitoes. In addition, it is vital for scientists to stringently control for quality; the consequences of releasing fertile male mosquitoes into the population will significantly worsen the epidemic.
In addition to preventing the spread of malaria, scientists are also looking into increasing the accuracy of their diagnosis. While there are different metrics to identify the presence of the parasite in the human body, many are slow and prone to contamination in the field. Scientists are looking to use nuclear magnetic resonance as an imaging tool to visualize the chemical footprint of these parasites. [5] Hemozoin, the chemical found in many parasites, is involved in many aspects of the pathology of the disease. [6] Using a 1.4 T 60 MHz benchtop NMR device, researchers were able to quickly detect hemozoin, but not at a high specificity. [5] In order to utilize this technology in the field, researchers recognize the necessity of pre-processing the sample to increase both the specify and sensitivity of the diagnosis.
While malaria remains a serious global health issue, the scientific community is beginning to work with newer technologies to create new insights and solutions to this problem.
© Haiwen Gui. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] "World Malaria Report 2018," World Health Organization, 2018.
[2] S. P. Kalra et al., "Resistant Malaria: Current Concepts and Therapeutic Strategies," Med. J. Armed Forces India 58, 228 (2002).
[3] K. N. Suh, K. C. Kain, and J. S. Keystone, "Malaria," Can. Med. Assoc. J. 170, 1693 (2004).
[4] L. Alphey et al., "Sterile-Insect Methods For Control of Mosquito-Borne Diseases: An Analysis," Vector-Borne Zoonot. 10, 295 (2010).
[5] S. Karl et al., "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: A Tool for Malaria Diagnosis?" Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 85, 815 (2011).
[6] L. M. Coronado et al., "Malarial hemozoin: From Target to Tool," Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 1840, 2032 (2014).
