AgDscam is a Receptor found in Vectors Correlates to Malaria Essay

Introduction The most dangerous creature in the world is the mosquito. Every year, mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, viral encephalitis, and West Nile virus, cripple and kill millions of people. In fact, malaria, a parasitic mosquito-borne disease, infects more than 400 million people and kills more than two million people each year. It is one of the principal causes of mortality in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The most fatal version of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is transmitted by the mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Malaria infected Cell Disease-transmitting mosquitoes are exposed to a wide range of deadly pathogens, and yet, they are able to resist infection. These invertebrates produce pattern recognition receptors, PRRs, which discern the specific molecular pattern associated with a pathogen. Upon recognition, the PRRs activate the insects immune system, which then isolates the pathogens by confining it within another molecule. The Anopheles gambiae mosquito generates approximately 150 PRR genes, each one with the ability to distinguish the molecular pattern for a particular pathogen. Another insect, the Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the fruit fly, contains a gene, Dscam (short for Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule), that plays a large role in producing PRRs. A recent study has shown that the fruit flies ability to quarantine bacteria is impaired when the Dscam gene is silenced. The Anopheles gambiae species has a related gene known as AgDscam. In this study, AgDscam was silenced; as a result, the mosquitos ability to resist infections with bacteria and defend against the malaria parasite Plasmodium was severely compromised. .. ... drawing forth the infectious organism through the production of challenge-specific splice form repertoires enriched with receptor molecules, which can easily identify molecules associated with microbial pathogens. The induction of this pathogen is done via immune signaling pathways. The mammalian down syndrome cell adhesion molecule gene does not undergo as much alternative splicing as that of insects, and it can only produce three different mRNA forms. This may imply that Dscam in mammalian nervous systems have a more specialized function which utilizes antibodies for patter recognition. Overall, understanding the immune system of the Anopheles Gambiae vector is very important. If we can become familiar with the way its immune system works and how it recognizes Plasmodium, it could become helpful in devising control strategies for the spread of malaria.