BETTER known for its distinctive flowers and hosting riotous parrot parties, the Australian bottlebrush could be the Next Big Thing in malaria control.
Nitisinone, a tyrosine-targeting compound derived from the plant, was initially intended for use as a herbicide.
However, it was also found to be effective in treating tyrosinemia type I and alkaptonuria, two rare genetic disorders that impair the body's ability to metabolise tyrosine.
Earlier this year, it was discovered that when fed to mozzies in human blood, nitisinone disrupts their amino acid metabolism, causing paralysis then death.
This was the case even in doses much lower than those typically given to human patients.
More recently, new findings published in Parasites & Vectors suggest that when mozzies merely walk on surfaces treated with nitisinone, the substance is absorbed through their feet, with the same deadly effect.
This means it could be applied to bed nets and other surfaces as an alternative to traditional insecticides such as the controversial DDT, which is still used in areas with high malaria transmission.
"The fact that it effectively kills insecticide-resistant mosquitoes could be a game-changer in areas where resistance to current insecticides is causing public health interventions to fail," said lead author Lee Haines of the London School of Tropical Medicine.
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