A functional analysis of resistance to pyrethroid insecticides in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

Malaria infects 200 million people every year and is a huge health and economic burden on many countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. The best way to control the disease is by reducing the number of mosquitoes (‘vectors’) that transmit the parasite responsible, and to reduce their interactions with humans. Indeed, since the turn of the millennium, the number of annual deaths from malaria has more than halved and this is largely due to the large-scale use of insecticide-treated bednets. Insecticide-treated nets provide protection by acting as both a physical barrier that stops the mosquito reaching the human to bite and by killing the mosquito through contact with insecticide. There is only one class of insecticide suitable for coating the net: the pyrethroids. This is due to their long duration of activity and their very low toxicity to humans. However, the rapid rise of resistance to this class of insecticide is a threat to the gains made in reducing this disease. Therefore, to avoid operational failure ways to manage this resistance need to be found by: detecting resistance early; changing vector control tools accordingly; developing new or modified insecticides that are not compromised by the same resistance mechanism. Essential to this goal is an understanding of how the insecticide works when interacting with its molecular target in the mosquito. Huge advances in DNA sequencing and ‘genomic surveillance’ – sampling mosquito genomes in the field – have pointed to the presence of DNA mutations in the voltage gated sodium channel, which is the channel protein that pyrethroids target in the membrane of insect nerves. However, other than this ‘smoking gun’ there is little idea of the individual contribution of the mutations (which sometimes occur alone and sometimes occur together in numbers) to the strength of the resistance or to the particular type of pyrethroid used (several are available). This is important because in order to have an effective early warning system to detect resistance it is vital to know the ‘severity’ of each mutation, or combination thereof. To use an analogy with an early weather warning system, a detection system that can distinguish an oncoming brisk wind from a hurricane has value in allowing one to prepare and react accordingly. The impact of mutations in the sodium channel, and how they manage to stop the pyrethroid molecule from interfering with it, is a vital piece of information for understanding exactly how this class of insecticides, so successful to date, works. It should open the door to designing variants of the currently available pyrethroids that are not compromised by the existing mutations, thereby extending the shelf life of these insecticides. Furthermore, the power to predict the emergence of resistance will be increased if new mutations should arise that are functionally similar to those that have been characterised. This project will allow the direct comparison of the different mutations side by side and in combination with each other, in terms not only of the magnitude of insecticide resistance conferred but also if there are other associated fitness costs in the mosquito.  Electrophysiology will also be used to determine the effect of each mutation in changing different properties of the sodium channel. This will allow the identification of mutations that are most important for resistance and help us understand why changes in their sodium channels provide those mutant mosquitoes with a survival advantage.. Together then, these approaches will provide an unprecedented set of data on the nature of pyrethroid resistance, which can be used to better understand how it emerges and how to plan strategies to mitigate its effect. 

The work proposed here takes a two-pronged approach: firstly, using CRISPR genome editing to introduce putative resistant mutations in vivo on a uniform genetic background to unambiguously measure their effect on resistance and any pleiotropic effects on mosquito fitness; secondly, by using an electrophysiology approach in parallel to measure, at fine scale, the nature of the alteration to the sodium channel conferred by these mutations.

Project details

Insecticide Resistance

Mar 2022 — Feb 2025

$1.12M

United Kingdom