Making Friends With a Malarial Enemy

The proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is not only true in politics, it can also be said in the microbial world.

A group of microbes – fungi – have long been an enemy to our enemies. Fungi are yeasts and molds that can produce antibiotics that destroy or inhibit the growth of bacterial cells.

But that's not all they do. A new report shows fungi can also fight a deadly parasitic disease – malaria. This tropical disease is caused by single-celled parasites called plasmodium, of which four species are primarily responsible for making people sick.

The parasite is carried by mosquitos to a vertebrate host, which can be humans, monkeys or even reptiles.

Scientists are attacking the parasite by targeting it in the mosquito. And they're doing so with a fungus called Metarhizium anisopliae or M. anisopliae.

Scientists are experimenting with genetically altered forms of the fungus. These altered M. anisopliae can produce chemicals that identify the parasite in the mosquito's blood and then block the parasite from entering the insect's salivary glands. This way the parasite does not get transferred when an infected mosquito bites a host.

If M. anisopliae proves effective, the plan is to spray the altered fungus on surfaces like interior walls and bed nets, where mosquitoes land. Once the fungus makes contact with the mosquito, it can penetrate the insect's cuticle or exoskeleton and begin replicating in its blood.

Researchers are engineering this fungus to attack malaria in other ways, too. One is being engineered to produce a protein to clump the malarial parasites together, which inactivates them.

Another produces a toxin that kills the parasites. These three approaches may reduce malarial viability by an astounding seventy to ninety percent.

Considering malaria infects over three hundred million people a year and kills a million, these fungal “friends” could have a major impact.