You may be thinking – this is a joke, right?
A new study published last month in Science Translational Medicine used 200 mosquitoes to deliver live malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites
that had been genetically modified to inject malaria into the arms of human test subjects in a new vaccine trial.
One Seattle morning, Carolina Reid sat in a room with nine other volunteers, each waiting to take part in a clinical trial for a new, experimental malaria vaccine.
Reid's turn came.
She put her arm over a cardboard box filled with 200 mosquitoes and covered with a mesh that keeps them in but still lets them bite. "Literally a Chinese food takeout container" is how she remembers it. A scientist then covered her arm with a black cloth, because mosquitoes like to bite at night.
Then the feeding frenzy began.
"My whole forearm swelled and blistered," says Reid. "My family was laughing, asking like, 'why are you subjecting yourself to this?'" And she didn't just do it once.
She did it FIVE TIMES
Seriously W✳️T✳️F ! ! !
The insects deliver live malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites that have been genetically modified to not get people sick. The body still makes antibodies against the weakened parasite so it's prepared to fight the real thing.
To be clear, Murphy's not planning to use mosquitoes to vaccinate millions of people.
RIIIIIGHT ! !
Mosquitoes have been used to deliver malaria vaccines for clinical trials in the past, but it's not common.
They went old school with this one," says Dr. Kirsten Lyke, a physician and vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. "All things old become new again."
She calls the use of a genetically modified live parasite "a total game changer" for vaccine development.
This type of vaccine is of course not yet ready for prime time. But the small trial of 26 participants did show that the modified parasites protected some participants from a malaria infection for a few months.
This Shizzziness is nearly unflucking believable.
Link for the rest of this crazy arse Hellish story
These are the bugs revelation talks about, with lion's faces. What a time to be alive, for now.