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Genetically Altered Mosquito Joins Fight Against Disease
Andrew Pollack | October 31, 2011

In this file photo, an Anopheles funestus mosquito takes a blood meal from a human host. (AP Photo/CDC, University of Notre Dame) In this file photo, an Anopheles funestus mosquito takes a blood meal from a human host. (AP Photo/CDC, University of Notre Dame)
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Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.

The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.

But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

Authorities in the Florida Keys, which in 2009 experienced its first cases of dengue fever in decades, hope to conduct an open-air test of the modified mosquitoes as early as December, pending approval from the federal Agriculture Department.

''It's a more ecologically friendly way to control mosquitoes than spraying insecticides," said Coleen Fitzsimmons, a spokeswoman for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.

Yet even supporters of the research worry it could provoke a public reaction similar to the one that has limited the acceptance of genetically modified crops. In particular, critics say that Oxitec, the British biotechnology company that developed the dengue-fighting mosquito, has rushed into field testing without sufficient review and public consultation, sometimes in countries with weak regulations.

''Even if the harms don't materialize, this will undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the research enterprise," said Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of international health law at Georgetown University.

The first release, discussed in a scientific paper published online Sunday by the journal Nature Biotechnology, took place in the Cayman Islands in 2009 and caught the scientific community by surprise. Oxitec has subsequently released the modified mosquitoes in Malaysia and Brazil.

Luke Alphey, chief scientist at Oxitec, said the technique was safe because only males were released, while only females bite people and spread the disease. "It's exquisitely targeted to the specific organism you are trying to take out," he said.

The technique, however, is not foolproof.

Alfred M. Handler, a USDA geneticist in Gainesville, Fla., said the mosquitoes, while being bred for generations in the lab, can evolve resistance to the lethal gene and might then be released inadvertently.

Experts assembled by the World Health Organization are preparing guidelines on how field tests of genetically modified insects should be conducted. Proponents hope the field will not face the same opposition as biotechnology crops.

''You don't eat insects," said Stephanie James of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. "This is being done for a good cause."
   
New York Times