They declare war on mosquitoes with repellent that become “invisible”

Miami. The deadliest of blood suckers, the mosquito, a transmitter of diseases as serious as dengue, malaria or the Nile virus, could cease to be thanks to a US government program that seeks to make a repellent. based on a gene that inhabits the human body.

Mosquito bites and their diseases, which kill about a million people worldwide each year, could have their days numbered.

In the ongoing fight against the bite of these insects, the government will launch an ambitious initiative that will allocate $ 15 million to research into the microbiome of human skin and its use for the manufacture of an effective natural repellent and long-lasting.

The repellent, a biochemical “trick”

The repellent responds to a chemical “deception”: the suppression of odor that naturally secretes the microbiome of human skin, composed of microorganisms, and thus prevent mosquitoes from “smelling” their victims, get and sting them .

Make us undetectable to mosquitoes under a layer of invisibility like the magic garment of Harry Potter. This is the purpose of the so-called ReVector, the program funded by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense, has entrusted this area to biotechnology and microbiology companies Gingko Bioworks and Azitra, the consulting firm Latham BioPharma Group (LBG) and the International University of Florida (FIU).

The researchers’ role is to “take advantage of the skin’s microbiome, its various microbes, to create a Living Biotherapeutic Product (LBP)” that “blocks the human chemical signals that attract mosquitoes while repelling them.” pointed out a joint statement released this Thursday.

Nail the skin microbiome

“The new repellent uses a microbiome-specific microbe to reduce those human odors that are attractive to mosquitoes and work, at the same time, with chemicals of botanical origin that repel” these insects, precisely today in Efe Matthew DeGennaro, of the Institute of Biomolecular Sciences of the FIU.

At the moment, the FIU team of scientists is in the experimental phase that DeGennaro labeled as “masking and repelling”, in reference to the development of tests with a “natural and specific skin microbe”.

The biomolecular expert of the FIU is confident that this is a biochemical “masking” of humans in front of mosquitoes is ready for use in clinical trials before four years.

Meanwhile, his lab has extensive fieldwork ahead of him: continuous testing to get the “specific microbe of the skin to mask and block” the attraction of mosquitoes to humans and, at the same time, “improve our understanding” of how these insects detect their victims.

Program designed for military personnel

This federal program was born with the purpose of protecting the health of U.S. military personnel displaced in regions severely affected by mosquito-borne diseases; but, in the end, this new generation repellent will offer, if successful, applications for commercial use and can be purchased by the general public, pointing out DeGennaro.

And is that the insecticides and products available on the market today do not provide effective and long-lasting protection against mosquito bites: they require an application on the skin every few hours and are not practical or reliable.

A situation that can change radically with this new repellent, with bacterial chemical base, which wants to be a “safe” product, easy to apply on the skin and able to protect against mosquito bites for up to two weeks without need to reapply it ”.

“Our research in collaboration with Azitra, FIU and LBG could be transformative for the next generation of living medicine,” said Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks.

It is the power of biology applied to improving human health, “the ability to program living cells that are part of our natural microbiome” to “improve our ability to fight the challenge of diseases” transmitted by mosquitoes. , Kelly pointed out.

A visionary project

For DeGennaro, this is a historic moment and we must “take advantage of the knowledge accumulated during the last years of research on how mosquitoes are in their customers” to “break the cycle of diseases transmitted” by these insects.

Finding an effective way to fight mosquitoes is therefore a priority and a health emergency. And this “visionary” project may be the answer, said Travis Whitfill, Azitra’s chief technology executive.

These genetic engineers are still developing now with this program for the logo of a biotherapeutic repellent that, if successful, could save mosquito-borne diseases to about 100 million people each year.

Unraveling the mystery of the human skin microbiome is the key to the development of this topical repellent designed to block the sense of smell of mosquitoes.

Composed of microorganisms and bacteria that British protects against dermatological diseases, the microbiome could soon become the trap to defeat this annoying buzzing enemy that also transmits a good number of deadly diseases.