The patient is terminal, its body racked by a parasite that is concentrated in the brain, nervous system, and reproductive tissues. Eventually the parasitic bacteria mushrooms inside the host's cells, resembling "a bag of popcorn in the microwave", and the victim dies.
It sounds like a fairly nasty bug, but, then again, its victim is a mosquito. Scientists at 10 educational and research institutes have been working to inject a strain of the parasite, the Wolbachia bacteria, into mosquitoes to shorten their lifespan and protect humans from the diseases they transmit. The study group published its first successful results in the journal Science earlier this month.
The latest research relates to dengue fever, but there is hope that it will lead to the alleviation of a host of mosquito-borne diseases including Japanese encephalitis, West Nile virus, lymphatic filoriasis, elephantiasis, African sleeping sickness, river blindness and malaria, the biggest killer of them all.
Dengue - one of the most common mosquito-borne infections but less dangerous than malaria - was chosen not because of the nature of the disease but because of its mode of transmission. The primary vector is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which feeds almost exclusively on human blood. Also, the tiny predators are easy to breed in the lab.
Because a mosquito has to pick up dengue from an infected human, incubate the virus until it reproduces enough to form a reservoir and then bite other humans, older insects generally spread the disease.
"Once it gets quite old if it's lucky enough to live that long, it can keep on infecting many people, that one mosquito, because it is taking meals every day," said Prof Scott O'Neill of Australia's University of Queensland, the lead investigator of the project. "What we have with dengue is quite a small number of mosquitoes, and those mosquitoes are probably very, very old, and they're contributing to nearly all the transmission of the virus."
The researchers have found that infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia bacteria effectively halves the lifespan of the host. But the potential for a systemic solution to disease stems from Wolbachia's effect on natural selection. Infected females pass on the infection to their larvae. Males do not, but if they fertilise the eggs of uninfected females, those eggs will not hatch, "so the Wolbachia-infected sisters of those males get an advantage and they leave behind more offspring, and all of those offspring carry the infection".
"This is the really cool part of the biology of the bacteria. It's able to effectively prevent mosquitoes that are uninfected with it from reproducing," Prof O'Neill said. "It's almost like a spiteful way in which the infection is able to spread by effectively being detrimental to females that don't have it."
Wolbachia is a common parasite in nature, with various strains infecting at least 20 per cent of insect species by conservative estimates. The popcorn metaphor for pathogenicity comes from the work of Dr Seymour Benzer, a former biologist at California Institute of Technology famous in scientific circles for naming the pathogenic strain of the bacteria after popcorn.
"He looked in sections of brain tissue, these bacteria kept on dividing and replicating, and they mimicked bags of microwave popcorn expanding full of bacteria," Prof O'Neill said. "Because the nerve cells are not dividing themselves, and similarly with muscle tissue, the infection builds up in those tissues. It's dividing the bacteria when it probably shouldn't be, and over time that causes the death of the insect. That's why only the mature insects end up dying."
The studies of Wolbachia in southern California fruit flies, where the infection rate is approximately 99.8 per cent in the insect population, are the acknowledged progenitors of the current work. The trick with mosquitoes was to transfer the parasite from its natural hosts to Aedes aegypti - Prof O'Neill said 10,000 mosquito embryos less than 30 minutes old had been injected with Wolbachia, a process that took 18 months.
Because of Aedes aegypti's refined palate and the delicacy of the experiment, human volunteers were used to feed the test subjects under controlled conditions.
Only two of the five lines of infected insects survived to form viable populations, a failure rate that Prof O'Neill ascribed to the difficulty of the initial in vitro infections. Once a population is established and released into the environment, mathematical models predict infection rates exceeding that found in fruit flies.
There is a raft of concerns about tampering with nature by introducing a parasite into a new population. The research is accompanied by ancillary social science studies gauging public perceptions of the project which have focused on the effect on the overall ecosystem and the possibility of a species jump in particular.
According to Prof O'Neill, in the case of Aedes aegypti, the "cockroach" of the mosquito world, some concerns are minimalised because its habitat is situated near its prey - in other words, in people's homes or the immediate vicinity, which is not a particularly pristine ecosystem.
In terms of species jump, he points out the difficulty his colleagues had infecting mosquitoes in the first place. "We worked really hard for a long period of time to get this into mosquitoes and had to do a whole lot of tricks in the lab to make it happen, so our natural feeling is that it is not just going to pop into a honeybee or something else very easily in the field. Actually, people who work with these bacteria and understand the evolutionary biology all agree that it is very restricted. It jumps over evolutionary time scales very rarely to a new, closely related species, but over the biological timeframes we are talking about doing some sort of controlled intervention, we see that as very unlikely."
Resolving these concerns will in part determine the future of the project. The study group is now embarked on a larger experiment in outdoor field cages in Queensland, Austrailia to test the mathematical models of infection rates outside of controlled laboratory conditions. (The food source will be blood bank stock heated underneath artificial skin). That project starts in February and should take 18 months.
"If those experiments are good, then we will do an actual open release, hopefully if we have regulatory approval, within Australia, within two to two and half years," Prof O'Neill said. That open release could be conducted on an island or similarly isolated locale, and would primarily be intended as another trial run.
Then, if all goes according to plan, the theory would be put into practice, and mosquitoes in disease centres such as Vietnam or Thailand could be going popcorn within the next five years.
jschertz@thenational.ae
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The%20Kitchen
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Napoleon
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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Company%20Profile
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Company%20Profile
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
PRISCILLA
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
Rebel%20Moon%20-%20Part%20One%3A%20A%20Child%20of%20Fire
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
