Malaria continues to sicken and kill millions of people around the world every year, and is an especially intractable problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Mosquito adulticides are the bedrock of effective malaria control because they are relatively cost-effective, they can be applied to walls or bednets, and they target the most critical variable in malaria transmission models, adult mosquito survivor rates. However, widespread insecticide resistance and continued malaria transmission require the development of novel adulticides and novel ways to apply them. Endectocides are broad spectrum, low toxicity drugs with combined anti-helminthic and anti-ectoparasitic properties and are currently given to human populations for onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis control. Current endectocides that act as agonists to glutamate and GABA-gated chloride ion channels in mosquito myoneural junctions, could also be effectively used for malaria control in sub- Saharan Africa and would have certain major advantages over other adulticides due to their molecular targets, how they would be administered to the human population, and the bionomics of African malaria vectors. This research is intended to determine the effective doses of glutamate and GABA-gated chloride ion channel agonist endectocides (macrocyclic lactones, milbemycins, nodulasporamides) for killing adult Anopheles spp. when administered via an artificial bloodmeal. Secondly, mass-ivermectin administration for onchocerciasis control in Southeastern Senegal will be tested for mosquitocidal effects on bloodfeeding adult Anopheles spp. in the field, and that this effect will transiently interrupt malaria transmission in the local community.
This project seeks to develop novel methods to control malaria in sub-Saharan Africa by evaluating current anti-helminth drugs for activity against African malaria vectors and testing their effects in a natural field experiment.
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