How some strange science frightens people...
And why scientists should do more to help reduce activists' propaganda ...

Mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya are a threat to human beings all over the world. Now scientists are trying to cure these diseases using a Genetically Modified Mosquito.

Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys (USA) if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases.

But some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 signed a Change.org petition against the experiment. Even potential boosters say those responsible must do more to show that benefits outweigh the risks.

Scientists think you can’t go ahead with something like this if public opinion is negative about it.

Mosquito controllers say they’re running out of options that can kill Aedes aegypti, a tiger-striped invader whose biting females spread these viruses. Climate change and globalization are spreading tropical diseases farther from the equator towards the extreme Northern and Southern parts of the globe. There are no vaccines or cures for dengue, known as “break-bone fever,” or chikungunya, which causes painful contortions. Dengue sickens 50 million people annually worldwide and kills 2.5 percent of the half-million who get severe cases, according to the World Health Organization. Chikungunya has already overwhelmed hospitals and harmed economies across the Caribbean after infecting a million people in the region last year. Insecticides are sprayed year-round from helicopters and door-to-door in the crowded neighborhoods throughout the effected parts of the North. But because Aedes aegypti don’t travel much and are repeatedly doused with the same chemicals, they have evolved to resist four of the six insecticides used to kill them. It has become extremely difficult to control them now.

Oxitec, is a British biotech firm launched by Oxford University researchers. They patented a method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of proteins from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as genes from coral and cabbage (2,3). This synthetic DNA (1) has been used in thousands of experiments without harming lab animals, but it is fatal to the bugs, killing mosquito larvae before they can fly or bite. Oxitec’s lab workers manually remove modified females, aiming to release only males, which feed on nectar and don’t bite for blood like females do. The modified males then mate with wild females whose offspring die, reducing the population. The test will be similar in size to Oxitec’s 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands (5), where 3.3 million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96 percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.

But critics accused Oxitec of failing to obtain informed consent in the Caymans, saying residents weren’t told they could be bitten by a few stray females overlooked in the lab.

Instead, Oxitec said only non-biting males would be released, and that even if humans were somehow bitten, no genetically modified DNA would enter their bloodstream.

Neither claim is entirely true, outside observers say!

“What Oxitec is trying to spin is that it’s highly improbable that there will be negative consequences of this foreign DNA entering someone that’s bitten by an Oxitec mosquito,” according to them. “We're on their side, in that consequences are highly unlikely. But to say that there’s no genetically modified DNA that might get into a human, that’s kind of a gray matter.”

Asked about these points, Oxitec spokesperson says it has now released 70 million of its mosquitoes in several countries and received no reports of human impacts caused by bites or from the synthetic DNA, despite regulatory oversight that encourages people to report any problems (4). “We are confident of the safety of our mosquito, as there’s no mechanism for any adverse effect on human health. The proteins are non-toxic and non-allergenic”.

Oxitec should still do more to show that the synthetic DNA causes no harm when transferred into humans by its mosquitoes, said Guy Reeves, a molecular geneticist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute. To build trust in any cutting-edge science, a range of independent experts — not just the company that stands to gain or the regulatory agency involved — should have enough access to data published in peer-reviewed journals to be able to explain the specific benefits and risks, he said. “Failing to do this almost inevitably means a potential for controversy to be sustained and amplified,” said Reeves, adding that mosquito-borne diseases need more solutions. “We should not be closing down productive avenues, and genetically modified mosquitoes might be one of them.”

Oxitec gives the list of  peer-reviewed papers (6) on this subject. Anybody can access these papers and verify the facts for themselves. However, it admits that it aims to publish much of its scientists' research in peer-reviewed journals, adding that the peer-review process can often take a long time, particularly if the manuscript is rejected by one journal and they have to submit to another journal.  This has happened several times with their research as the journals regarded it as not of sufficient general interest (7)!

Oxitec replies to the above criticism: This experiment is self-limiting, using insects engineered to kill their progeny, not make them stronger. It is contained, since Oxitec’s mosquitoes won’t breed with other species. Killing off Aedes aegypti can protect human health while eliminating an invasive species. And most Key Haven residents responded positively to a district survey about the planned field test.
Using GMOs also could save money, according to the researchers. The district spends 10 percent of its budget on Aedes aegypti, which represents less than 1 percent of the 45 mosquito species buzzing around the Keys.

If the US FDA decides against the test, or the modified mosquitoes fail to work as promised, the administration will still need to kill the bugs. Otherwise it will get the stick. How they will fight the ever evolving mosquitoes without the help from GM arena is anybody's guess.

There is a criticism that science and technology serve the interests of those who fund them. And in serving these interests, they help perpetuate them. To a considerable extent, therefore, science and technology have become instruments of state and industrial power. This perception of activists should be attended to and tackle effectively before conducting the experiments in the public domain. These are not medieval times where people believed everything their leaders ( both religious and governing) told them. People are more informed now but where that information comes from is extremely important in shaping their perception of science.

When Oxitec itself admits that it is finding it difficult to publish their papers in peer-reviewed journals ( even 'the peers' might find it difficult not to overlook public concerns and are getting 'influenced' in this way by the public opinion), the researchers must definitely do more than just expressing their opinions to convince the public and removing the road blocks to their work.

Story source: AP with other inputs from Sci-Art Lab

Update (1):

FDA Says Deploying Genetically Modified Mosquitoes is Environmentally Safe

The bugs could be used to help contain Zika in Florida (8).  

U.S. health regulators said a genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, possibly paving the way for the technique to be used in the country.

The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the U.K.-subsidiary of U.S. synthetic biology company Intrexon Corp. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce.

Preliminary findings of an investigational trial by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted in the Florida Keys region ruled that the genetically modified mosquitoes will not have a significant impact on the environment, effectively agreeing with an environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec.

The findings come on the heels of rising concern over Zika virus in the United States, with Florida declaring a public health emergency last month.

Updates on this issue (2): 

GM Mosquito Progeny Not Dying in Brazil: Study

The biotech Oxitec had released the genetically engineered insects with the hope that they would breed with wild populations and produce offspring that die young. But that’s not always happening.

Afield experiment in Brazil that deployed genetically modified mosquitoes to control wild populations of the pest may be having unintended consequences. According to a genetic analysis of mosquitoes in the area, it appears the engineered stock has bred with wild mosquitoes and created viable, hybrid insects, scientists reported in Scientific Reports last week (September 10).

“The claim was that genes from the release strain would not get into the general population because offspring would die,” coauthor Jeffrey Powell, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, says in a press release. “That obviously was not what happened.”

The biotech company Oxitec began releasing hundreds of thousands of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the city of Jacobina between 2013 and 2015. The idea is that genetically modified (GM) males would mate with wildtype females and pass on a gene that kills their offspring before they themselves can breed, ultimately knocking down Jacobina’s mosquito populations. 

The study’s authors, who are not affiliated with Oxitec, began sampling mosquitoes in Jacobina before, during, and after the deployment of the GM insects. They created a genetic panel that distinguished the wildtype mosquitoes from the introduced ones and found that insects analyzed more than two years after the releases stopped were progeny of both wildtype and mutant, or OX513A, lineages. “The degree of introgression is not trivial,” the authors write in their report. “Depending on sample and criterion used to define unambiguous introgression, from about 10% to 60% of all individuals have some OX513A genome.”

Oxitec takes issue with Powell’s study. The company tells Gizmodo it is “currently in the process of working with the Nature Research publishers to remove or substantially correct this article, which was found to contain numerous false, speculative and unsubstantiated claims and statements about Oxitec’s mosquito technology.” 

The company has reported positive results as far as reducing mosquito populations—and potentially mosquito-borne diseases—in its field sites.

Texas and Florida have considered using Oxitec’s GM mosquitoes to control populations in their states. On September 11, the Environmental Protection Agency posted a request for public comment on Oxitec’s application to release engineered insects in the Florida Keys. If approved, it would be the first deployment of the animals in the US (9).

References:

1. http://www.oxitec.com/oxitec-video/more-on-the-science-how-does-oxi...

2. http://www.oxitec.com/oxitec-video/using-genes-to-control-insects-t...

3. http://www.oxitec.com/faqs/how-is-oxitecs-mosquito-different-from-o...

4. http://www.oxitec.com/subjects/benefit/

5. http://www.oxitec.com/subjects/demonstration/

6. http://www.oxitec.com/ridl-science/publications/

7. http://www.oxitec.com/faqs/where-should-the-general-public-or-other...

8. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fda-says-deploying-geneti...

9. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/gm-mosquito-progeny-not-...