Objective Mosquitoes by transmitting several viral and parasitic diseases still represent one of major health threats for billions of individuals living in third world countries. The most effective measure to deal with the problem of disease transmitted by these insects is the release of harmful insecticides in the environment. However the use of pesticides has economical and ecological costs that are not always acceptable. DNA technology could potentially enable the development of mosquitoes. carrying a trans-gene that confers a non permissive phenotype for disease transmission. To reach this objective several scientific and technical problems have yet to be overcome:i)the means of introducing manipulated DNA into the mosquito germ line.ii)the identification of the genes that when expressed in the mosquito would interfere with virus and parasite replication or maturation and iii)development of DNA vectors able to target gene expression to specific mosquito tissues. We Propose to perform a series of experiments aimed at the identification of a mosquito promoter/ enhancer sequence specific for the cells of the intestinal lineage that should be used to target the expression in the gut lumen of antibodies with malaria transmission blocking activity.The ralionale of designing the expression (and secretion) of the trans-gene to the mosquito intestinal cells is based on the fact these cells are first exposed to the parasite that also undergo maturation and replication in the gut environment in contact with the secreted products of the intestinal cells. Furthermore the expression of the trans-gene in a tissue specific manner should not disturb the function of other tissues and organs. The resulting mosquitoes would most likely retain a normal behavior and fitness which should enable them to compete with the wild type strains and to propagate the non vectorial Phenotype.The experimental activily that is needed to reach these objectives includes: i)identification of mosquito genes that are specifically transcribed in the gutcells ii) identification of the upstream regulatory DNA sequences that drive gut specific transcription, iii) developmentof DNA vector able to induce the expression of a reporter gene only in mosquito gut cells.iv) production of transgenic mosquitoes.v)isolation of the coding sequences of P. falciparum gametocytes antibodies. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesmalarianatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNAnatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomologynatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyinvertebrate zoology Programme(s) FP3-STD 3 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of the life sciences and technologies for developing countries, 1990-1994 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza Address Piazzale aldo moro 5 00185 Roma Italy See on map EU contribution € 0,00 Participants (5) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Association for Scientific Cooperation in Microbiology and Parasitology with Developing Countries Italy EU contribution € 0,00 Address Viale carso 1 00195 Roma See on map FOUNDATION OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY - HELLAS Greece EU contribution € 0,00 Address Vassilika vouton 71110 Iraklion See on map Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Brazil EU contribution € 0,00 Address 4365,av.brasil 21040 Rio de janeiro See on map IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address Campus at silwood park, road a329 (virginia water SW7 2AZ London See on map Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address Pembroke place L3 5QA Liverpool See on map
