{"id":3225,"date":"2016-12-06T15:54:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T15:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/?p=3225"},"modified":"2016-12-06T15:54:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T15:54:19","slug":"transgenic-mosquitoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/transgenic-mosquitoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgenic Mosquitoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the meeting on November 15 I have covered a paper by Gantz<\/span> <\/a>et al. describing a method for creating transgenic mosquitoes<\/strong> expressing antibodies<\/strong> hindering the development of malaria<\/strong> parasites.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he immune system is commonly divided into two categories: innate<\/strong> and adaptive<\/strong>. The innate immune system<\/strong> consists of non-specific defence mechanisms such as epithelial barriers, macrophages etc. The innate system is present in virtually every living organism. The adaptive immune system<\/strong> is responsible for invader-specific defence response. Is consists of B and T lymphocytes<\/strong> and encompasses antibody<\/strong> production<\/strong>. As only vertebrates posses the adaptive immune system<\/strong>, mosquitoes do not <\/span>naturally produce antibodies<\/span> which hinders their ability to defend themselves against pathogens such as malaria.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the study by <\/span>Gantz<\/span><\/a> et al. <\/span>the authors <\/span>inserted transgenes expressing three single-chain Fvs<\/strong> (m4B7, m2A10 and m1C3) into the <\/span>previously-characterised<\/span><\/strong> chromosomal docking sites<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>

Figure 1: The RT-PCR experiments showing the scFv expression in different mosquito strains<\/p><\/div>\n

RT-PCR was used to detect scFv transcripts<\/strong> in RNA isolated from the <\/span>transgenic <\/span>mosquitoes (see Figure 1). The experiments showed that the attP 44-<\/strong><\/span>C<\/span><\/strong> recipient line<\/strong> allowed expression of the transgenes coding for the scFvs. <\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he authors evaluated the impact of the <\/span>modifications<\/span> on the fitness of the mosquitoes<\/strong>. It was shown that <\/span>the transgene expression does not reduce the lifespan<\/strong> of the mosquitoes, or their ability to procreate<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expression of the scFvs target<\/span>ed<\/span> the parasite at both the early and late development stages<\/strong>. The transgenic mosquitoes displayed a significant reduction<\/strong> in the<\/strong> number of malaria sporozoites<\/strong> per infected female, in most cases completely inhibiting<\/strong> the <\/span>sporozoite development.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall the study showed that it is possible<\/strong> to develop transgenic mosquitoes<\/strong> <\/span>that are<\/span> resistant to malaria<\/span><\/strong>. If this method was combined with a mechanism for a gene spread,<\/strong> the malaria-resistant mosquitoes could be released into the environment<\/strong>, helping to fight the spread of this disease<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the meeting on November 15 I have covered a paper by Gantz et al. describing a method for creating transgenic mosquitoes expressing antibodies hindering the development of malaria parasites. The immune system is commonly divided into two categories: innate and adaptive. The innate immune system consists of non-specific defence mechanisms such as epithelial barriers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[493],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":493,"user_id":31,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jaroslaw","display_name":"jaroslaw nowak","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d3ddaccc000bffff018a1bdedaebefb1ac9454506ae5203150e7b3efd8dd9a6e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blopig.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}