“No animal on Earth has touched so directly and profoundly the lives of so many human beings. For all of history, and all over the globe, she has been a nuisance, a pain, and an angel of death. The mosquito has killed great leaders, decimated armies, and decided the fate of nations. All this, and she is roughly the size and weight of a grape seed”
Preface to “Mosquito” by Andrew Spielman and Michael D’Antonio.
The numerous diseases they transmit result in millions of annual fatalities worldwide. In SE Asia, diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include Dengue Fever, Malaria, Chikungunya, a variety of Encephalitides (Japanese, Eastern and Western Equine, La Crosse, St. Louis), Yellow Fever, Rift Valley Fever and West Nile virus. Worldwide, the situation is equally grim with approximately one-half of the world’s population susceptible to Malaria and Dengue Fever alone with over one million and 50,000 fatalities attributed to each disease, respectively. EntoGeneX Industries Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian company is commercializing its mosquito larvicide to address these issues.
Current mosquito control strategies, especially in developing countries, rely on neurotoxic chemical pesticides with their attendant non-target, environmental impacts and increasing mosquito resistance problems, rendering them unsustainable on a long-term basis. Even the conspicuous efforts by the Gates Foundation to make a significant impact against mosquitoes and malaria have recently received a severe set-back as mosquitoes are rapidly developing resistance to the permethrin insecticides used to impregnate bed nets. Further, the malaria parasite is now reported to be developing resistance to Artemisinin, the latest and most effective anti-malaria drug available.
EntoGeneX International, Ltd. is a British Virgin Islands intellectual property holding company with exclusive, world-wide rights to the TMOF technology under license from the University of Florida (16 patents) in addition to exclusive rights to all registered studies supporting U.S. EPA registration. Further intellectual property rights to the EGX-101 BioRepellent technology are also invested with EntoGeneX International, Ltd.
EntoGeneX Industries Sdn Bhd (EGXI), a Malaysian BioNexus Biotechnology company, holds a sublicense to commercialize the TMOF and EGX-101 BioRepellent technologies in Malaysia and is presently commercializing these natural, biotechnology tools for the effective control of mosquito populations. EGXI launched its Moustique™ mosquito biorepellent product on 2 April 2009. Moustique™ offers users a natural and safe tool to provide personal protection against the Dengue mosquito and attendant transmitted diseases. EGXI is also in scale-up stage to produce its TMOF_Yeast mosquito larvicide which, in combination with Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) in its MOUSTIcide product, will provide a highly effective tool to control mosquito populations at the larval stage – before adult mosquitoes can emerge and transmit disease. EGXI is planning to launch MOUSTIcide in the second half of 2009.
As effective as these mosquito control tools are for controlling mosquito populations, there are limitations as the tools need to be distributed to many remote areas of the world. Transportation costs and routine product availability represent just two of the challenges. A truly global solution to mosquito control needs to overcome these shortcomings. We are therefore proposing a new approach to global mosquito control – incorporating synthesis of TMOF and Bti into staple crops such as corn (and possibly rice) grown by local, rural populations. Pollen containing TMOF and Bti from the plants will fall into aquatic mosquito sites near these plants where mosquitoes breed and mosquito larvae develop. When the mosquito larvae consume the TMOF/Bti pollen as food, they will perish, breaking the mosquito life cycle before adults emerge to transmit disease.
EntoGeneX International has the capacity to drive the development of this new mosquito control technology in collaboration with a variety of International institutions. Collaborators include the University of Florida, other US and international universities, the World Health Organization and the United Nations. An estimated budget of US$15 million is required over 5 years for laboratory and field work to establish the technology. It is proposed that the crop strains produced not contain genetic elements that would prevent poor and rural people from utilizing the crop on an ongoing basis so they can protect themselves from mosquito transmitted diseases. Licensed Intellectual Property rights and the crops produced can be sold to international philanthropic organizations (WHO, Gates Foundation, etc.) to recoup the costs associated with the project plus a significant return on the investment.
Pictures displayed with permission from Prof. D. Borovsky University of Florida.
African Village Dwelling picture taken by Dr. Richard Pollack Harvard University.
The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet through the diseases it transmits. Approximately one-half of the world’s population or 3 billion people are susceptible to Dengue and Malaria, currently the most lethal mosquito vectored diseases. The entire population of Malaysia is susceptible to Dengue with over 37,000 reported cases in 2008 alone. There is no vaccine for Dengue and there are no therapies other than intravenous fluids and blood transfusions to curtail hypovolemic shock and low blood platelet levels. Present mosquito control practices are ineffective as witnessed by the sustained high number of Dengue cases. Having Dengue once does not prevent additional infections as there are four distinct strains of Dengue that are not immuno-cross-reactive. Internal bleeding and death are possible consequences of Dengue.
A similar situation (albeit on a smaller scale in Malaysia at present) exists with Chikungunya.
EntoGeneX Industries is the Founding Sponsor of the expanded scope of Yayasan Tunku Naquiyuddin “Stop Dengue Mission” to educate the general population about the dangers of Dengue and how to curtail its transmission. Our collective goal is to arrest the spread of Dengue and reduce its impact on Malaysia and the world. We are asking the Malaysian Ministry of Health to embrace the “Stop Dengue Mission” for the health and wellness all Malaysians.
The consensus of mosquito control professionals is that the best way to control mosquito populations and the diseases they vector is at the larval stage when the larvae are in the water. By reducing the mosquito larval populations, adult emergence is curtailed. Larval control offers an additional advantage for controlling Dengue because the Dengue virus is passed trans-ovarian resulting in infected larvae and adults that can transmit the Dengue virus immediately upon adult emergence. By reducing the larval populations, Dengue transmission can be curtailed.
MOUSTIcide is a new innovative tool for the natural, safe, effective control of mosquito larvae. MOUSTIcide utilizes the novel TMOF (Trypsin Modulating Oostatic Factor) peptide technology expressed in a nonpathogenic yeast (Pichia pastoris). TMOF is the natural mosquito peptide hormone that stops protein digestion in mosquito larvae, causing metabolic starvation and larval death. When combined with another mosquito larvicide (Bti, Bacillus thuringiensis israeliensis) larval death is synergistically enhanced (the activity of Bti is dramatically reduced in the presence of alternative food sources). Because of its mode of action, development of resistance to TMOF is not expected while minimizing nontarget toxicity. The principal active ingredient in MOUSTIcide (TMOF_yeast) has been registered with the US Environmental Protection Agency and exempted from registration by the Malaysia Pesticide Board. The Malaysia Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) has approved “Contained Use” of the TMOF_yeast for production purposes (fermentation). Because the TMOF_yeast is 100% killed following production, the final product is no longer an organism and hence exempt from further regulation. Fermentation production of the active ingredient is conducted in Malaysia under contract with the Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP) at the University Technology Malaysia.
MOSTIcide will be combined with Bti to yield a highly effective mosquito larvicide product for the control of mosquito larvae.
EntoGeneX Industries Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian BioNexus Status company producing its products in Malaysia for use worldwide.
