Malaria parasite alters host's scent to attract mosquitoes

A new study has revealed that malaria parasites alter the chemical odor signal of their hosts to attract mosquitoes and better spread their offspring.

According to researchers, malaria-infected mice are more attractive to mosquitoes than uninfected mice and they are the most attractive to these mosquito vectors when the disease is most transmissible.

Mosquitoes ingest the parasite with a blood meal, and the parasite creates the next generation in the mosquito's gut and these nascent parasites travel to the vector's salivary glands and are passed to the host during the next meal.

The researchers found that using a mouse malaria model, the mosquitoes were more attracted to infected mice, even when the mice were otherwise asymptomatic.

Consuelo De Moraes, professor of entomology, Penn State, said that they were most interested in individuals that are infected with the malaria parasite but are asymptomatic and asymptomatic people can still transmit the disease unless they are treated, so if we can identify them we may be able to better control the disease.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.