![]() In fact, one of these molecules is carbon dioxide, a known mosquito attractant that is definitely emitted through skin. Volatile molecules could have the ability to pass through skin. They collected the volatile molecules emitted into the air above red blood cells that had been either mixed with HMBPP or infected with the malaria parasite. ![]() “How could a mosquito in the real world sense a molecule in blood trapped underneath skin?”Īn interesting result, for sure, but a practical one? For example, how could a mosquito in the real world sense a molecule in blood trapped underneath skin? So Faye’s team went further. When given a choice between normal human blood and that either laced with the HMBPP or infected with malaria parasites, almost all the mosquitoes went for the latter two. “The difference it made was just astounding,” says Faye. ![]() She wanted to drill into the details of how HMBPP affects mosquito immune systems, but her team ended up noticing some behavior too odd to ignore: The mosquitos-specifically, the species Anopheles gambiae they were studying-would go crazy for human blood with HMBPP. Ingrid Faye, a molecular biologist at Stockholm University, was curious about a particular molecule made by malaria parasites called HMBPP. ![]() And conversely, humans infected with malaria seem to emanate signals that attract more mosquitoes.Ī new study in Science actually illuminates how the parasite in human blood draws mosquitoes, manipulating the bugs into flying malaria-dispersal machines. A handful of studies have found that female mosquitoes infected with a certain stage of the parasite are more eager for blood. The parasites that causes malaria, which belong to the genus Plasmodium, spread to humans through mosquito bites. Malaria, which sickens more than 200 million people a year, seems to have some mind-altering powers over mosquitoes, too. ![]()
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