Turning Human Blood Into a Mosquito Killer: A Game-Changer for Malaria?

Imagine a future where a basic pill would make human blood a lethal trap for mosquitoes. Scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK are researching this audacious possibility with a drug called nitisinone — a drug already licensed to treat some rare genetic disorders.

Their new proof-of-concept research demonstrates that when mosquitoes drink the blood of individuals on nitisinone, they're dead within a matter of hours. The discovery paves the way for the possibility of using a new weapon against mosquito-transmitted diseases such as malaria.

How Nitisinone renders blood toxic to mosquitoes?

Nitisinone is already utilized to treat a rare genetic illness by inhibiting the synthesis of a particular protein. Yet researchers discovered that, when mosquitoes drink blood with the drug, they can be deadly.

The study tested mosquitoes that had been blood-feeding off three individuals already on nitisinone medication for medical use. In just 12 hours, the mosquitoes were dead.

Rendering human and animal blood poisonous to disease-spreading insects may prove to be a game-saver for global health, says microbiologist Lee R. Haynes, co-author of the research.

A potential substitute for other antiparasitic medications?

This is not the first experiment with using drugs to kill mosquitoes via their food. Scientists have also tested another antiparasitic drug, ivermectin, for mosquito-killing capacities. There are a few important differences, though:

• Speed: Although ivermectin is capable of killing mosquitoes in low doses, nitisinone is quicker, usually within a day.

• Longevity: Nitisinone remains in the blood for a longer time, so it's more likely to infect more mosquitoes.

• Safety: Nitisinone is not directed at the nervous system like ivermectin, which makes it less neurotoxic. Moreover, research has also established that ivermectin is toxic to beneficial insects, whereas nitisinone is more targeted in its activity.

For this strategy to be feasible, nitisinone would need to surpass ivermectin, said parasitologist Alvaro Acosta Serrano, a co-author of the study. "In fact, its performance was exceptional," he said.

A new glimmer of hope in the war on malaria:

Malaria still kills over half a million people every year, and advances in fighting the disease have been hampered by population growth and growing resistance to existing treatments.

This new strategy may give a much-needed impetus to global malaria prevention. If additional studies verify the safety and effectiveness of nitisinone, it may be used in combination with current methods like insecticide-treated bed nets and vaccines.

"Nitisinone is a versatile compound that can also be used as an insecticide," says Acosta Serrano.

With further research, turning human blood into mosquito venom may be a key tool in the battle against one of the world's deadliest illnesses.

The research appeared in Science Translational Medicine.

References:

1. Science Alert. 2025. "Drug for Rare Disease Turns Human Blood into Mosquito Poison." Science Alert, March 2025. Accessed March 2025. https://www.sciencealert.com/drug-for-rare-disease-turns-human-blood-into-mosquito-poison.

2. Science Translational Medicine. 2025. "Anopheles Mosquito Survival and Pharmacokinetic Modeling Show the Mosquitocidal Activity of Nitisinone." Science Translational Medicine, March 2025. Accessed March 2025. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adr4827.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Muhammad Faisal Arshad/SSK)