Nitisinone is a medication that has been around for years. It’s used to fight genetic disorders like hereditary tyrosinemia type 1.
But, according to researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, a medical school and research lab dedicated to tropical diseases like malaria, this genetic disorder medication turns people’s blood too toxic for mosquitoes. They die within a day of drinking the blood of someone on the medication.
Research teams all over the world are constantly coming up with new and exciting ways to genocide mosquitoes. From altering them so that their semen becomes toxic to making them deaf so they can’t pick up on mating calls. We do some fucked up shit to them, and for good reason— hey pass around a variety of illnesses.
We should be protecting as many animal species as we can to maintain a delicate ecological balance, but when it comes to mosquitoes, they should all die… is generally the scientific community’s take on the pesky little bug.
Does Nitisinone Really Kill Mosquitoes?
The study found that nitisinone was effective at killing mosquitoes of all ages, including those most likely to carry malaria. In comparison to ivermectin, a commonly used drug that also kills mosquitoes, nitisinone has a leg up.
It’s faster acting, remains in the human bloodstream for a longer, and does not affect the nervous system, making it less toxic to humans and other species.
So far there’s nothing concrete but the evidence at this stage does look promising. Tainting a mosquito’s food supply, namely, us, is not a new idea. But this new approach that uses a medication that is otherwise safe for humans is novel and far promising, even if it’s still early in development.
One thing researchers want to better understand before this treatment can be developed on a larger scale would be to assess its impact on the environment. So far, it seems like nitisinone doesn’t kill other vital insects. But, again, it’s still early, and we are not quite sure of the domino effect it could have on an ecosystem.
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