Malaria mosquito and Human sweat

Scientists say the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite is more attracted to the smell of human sweat than normal mosquitoes, researchers in the Netherlands say the mosquitoes that bring in malaria parasites three times more likely to bite humans than mosquitoes that do not carry the parasite.

The malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae).  
(Picture from: http://www.buddycom.com/)

The researchers say that the malaria mosquitoes bite humans is an effort of the parasite in order to reproduce. The study, published in the journal PLoS One says that the results can help predict how malaria infection in humans. Dr James Logan, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) say, that one thing that always surprises me is how 'smart' these parasites. Parasites are organisms that evolve more rapidly as one step ahead of us all, To do this study the researchers made the malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) affected the most deadly parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

They put about 100 mosquitoes to a place with a number previously worn stockings oIeh volunteers for 20 hours. "Stockings are the most effective way to collect body odor, and will last for months," said Dr. Logan. The scientists repeated the experiments with mosquitoes that do not carry the parasite. They found that mosquitoes with deadly parasites three times greater odor invaded stockings.

Logan and colleagues have won a research grant to study this further over three years. In the next step, they will take body smell samples from 30 people, "mixing it all up so we’ve got an overall coverage of different types of human odor," he said. Scientists already know that individuals can differ in their attractiveness to mosquitoes.

"The importance is that we showed in a biologically relevant system of a mosquito, a parasite and a blood host, that the parasite can manipulate the behavior of a mosquito," said lead study author Renate Smallegange, who now works at Wageningen Academic Publishers. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | BBC | WQAD 8 | JAM | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 23052013]
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