Cited by 289Malaria Research and ControlInsect Resistance and GeneticsDengue and Mosquito Control Research

How to make evolution-proof insecticides for malaria control

Open access
Read, Andrew F, Lynch, Penelope A, Thomas, Matthew B·2009·PLoS Biology

Abstract

Insecticides are one of the cheapest, most effective, and best proven methods of controlling malaria, but mosquitoes can rapidly evolve resistance. Such evolution, first seen in the 1950s in areas of widespread DDT use, is a major challenge because attempts to comprehensively control and even eliminate malaria rely heavily on indoor house spraying and insecticide-treated bed nets. Current strategies for dealing with resistance evolution are expensive and open ended, and their sustainability has yet to be demonstrated. Here we show that if insecticides targeted old mosquitoes, and ideally old malaria-infected mosquitoes, they could provide effective malaria control while only weakly selecting for resistance. This alone would greatly enhance the useful life span of an insecticide. However,such weak selection for resistance can easily be overwhelmed if resistance is associated with fitness costs. In that case, late-life-acting insecticides would never be undermined by mosquito evolution.We discuss a number of practical ways to achieve this, including different use of existing chemical insecticides,biopesticides, and novel chemistry. Done right, a one-off investment in a single insecticide would solve the problem of mosquito resistance forever.

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Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000058

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  • The clinical experiment of 50 years of AmB use indicates that the emergence of drug resistance is not inevitable.

    “The clinical experiment of 50 years of AmB use indicates that the emergence of drug resistance, which widely plagues antimicrobial therapeutics, is not inevitable [46].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Coetzee M Horne DWK Brooke BD Hunt RH 1999 DDT, dieldrin and pyrethroid insecticide resistance in African malaria vector mosquitoes: an historical review and implications for future malaria control in southern Africa South African J Sci 95 215 218

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Authors
Read, A. F., Lynch, P. A., & Thomas, M. B.
Affiliations
  • Pennsylvania State University (US)
  • The Open University (GB)
Corresponding author
Read, Andrew F
Venue
PLoS Biology
Published
2009-04-07
Volume
7
Issue
4
Pages
e1000058
ISSN
  • 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-7885
OpenAlex
W1989318293
Cited by
288
References
90
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 31
FWCI
35.80
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Malaria Research and Control
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Insect Resistance and Genetics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Dengue and Mosquito Control Research
Keywords
insecticide resistance, mosquito resistance, malaria control, insecticides, resistance selection, fitness cost of resistance, insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, biopesticides, DDT
MeSH terms
Animals, Bedding and Linens, Biological Evolution, Housing, Insect Vectors, Insecticide Resistance, Insecticides, Malaria, Mosquito Control, Culicidae

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