Scientists target mainly the malaria-transmitting Anopheles gambiae species.
As Africa continues to shoulder the
global burden of malaria, scientists and policy experts say gene drive
technology could offer a groundbreaking solution.
But without clear regulatory
frameworks and strong community engagement, its deployment could be delayed, risking
further loss of life and economic productivity.
During the Evidence for Development
(EVI4DEV) Conference in Nairobi, hosted by the African Union Development Agency
(AUDA-NEPAD), the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA), and the African
Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), experts called for urgent policy
harmonisation and public dialogue to enable the safe rollout of gene drive
technology.
“Malaria is an African problem, we
need to find our own tools to address malaria problems,” said Dr Barbara Glover
from AUDA-NEPAD, South Africa. “Africa should be able to innovate new
technologies and solutions for African problems.”
Gene drive technology targets
malaria-transmitting mosquitoes by altering their genetic makeup, specifically
the Anopheles gambiae species, to pass on traits such as infertility, reducing
mosquito populations over time. The approach, being developed under the Target
Malaria consortium, has shown promise in laboratory settings but has not yet
been tested in the field.
“Gene drives systems promote the
biased inheritance of specific genes from one generation to the next,”
explained Dr Wiltshire Johnson of Auda-Nepad. “Gene drive is deployed when a
causal pathway initiated by release of a gene drive system in target mosquito
vector species, leading to its transmission to subsequent generations, its
increase in frequency and spread in target mosquito populations, its
simultaneous propagation of a linked genetic trait aimed at reducing vectorial
capacity of plasmodium and reduced vectorial capacity for parasites in target
mosquito populations resulting in decreased malaria incidence and prevalence.”
Johnson emphasised the urgency of
adopting innovative tools amid increasing resistance to existing malaria
interventions such as insecticides and drug treatments.
“Malaria still kills 600,000 people,
causes reduction of 25 percent GDP in Africa countries,” he said. “Even with
existing traditional Malaria control tools starting to fail or are showing
signs of failure… the deployment and use of gene drive technology will help
in solving the malaria problem.”
According to the 2023 World Malaria
Report, Africa accounted for 94 per cent of global malaria cases and 95 per cent
of deaths, with a child dying of malaria every minute.
Still, despite promising research and
mathematical models indicating potential efficacy, expert’s stress that gene
drive must move forward carefully, with phased releases and strong safeguards.
“We are using malaria and mosquitoes
as a pathfinder vector that will be used in future in all vector borne diseases
if the technology deployment will be successful,” said Johnson.
Yet regulatory gaps remain a
significant obstacle. Many African countries lack specific policies or legal
mechanisms for approving and monitoring gene drive technology.
“We must ensure that Africa has a
regulatory system for development and deployment of novel and new tools such as
gene drive malaria,” said Dr Gansane Adama of Burkina Faso’s Institut National
de Santé Publique (INSP). “If there is evidence to show efficacy and safety of
malaria gene drive there will be social acceptance of the technology, there is
a need to engage communities in the core development of the technology.”
Other experts echoed the importance of
unified policies across borders. Gene drive organisms, once released, are
likely to spread beyond a single country—making regional cooperation essential.
“Malaria gene drive is a GMO that will
not be confined to one region because they move,” said Dr Charles Mugoya,
regulation lead for Target Malaria in Uganda. “Lack of regional operational
mechanism can be a big risk to deployment. All the countries have to build
consensus and mechanism to embrace the technology.”
He added: “There should be uniformed
bio-safety and biotechnology collaborations through information and data
sharing.”
Musa Kwenhangana, environment
regulator at Auda-Nepad, South Africa, said that environmental risk assessments
should guide deployment decisions.
“Many African countries have the
capacity to do environmental risk assessment and evaluation of risks. Countries
must make decisions based on science,” he said. “There should be clarity on
protection goals according to environmental risk assessment.”
To address these concerns, Auda-Nepad
is currently working to build a continent-wide regulatory framework that aligns
with both national laws and global standards such as the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
“Auda-Nepad is building a regulatory
framework for countries. There are established global, continental and national
requirements to evaluate the safety of the regulatory standards,” said Dr.
Wiltshire Johnson. “We will capacity build regulators to ensure that they have
regulatory policies, systems and technical support to enable countries to
deploy the technology.”
He added: “The work on gene drive
regulation started a decade ago but within the next three years African Union
would have developed regulatory framework for countries.”
Dr Mugoya concluded that successful
adoption of the technology depends on scientific rigor, sound regulation, and
public trust.
“Sound science is a strong pillar to
generate the technology that will work, by proper framing of the problem,
proper hypothesis of the research that you are going to do and proper analysis
of data and proper preparation of methodology and well-coordinated streamlined
and analysis of collection of data.”
With the malaria burden still heavily
concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, experts agree that now is the time for
Africa to lead in developing and deploying new tools.
Dr Johnson noted, “This is not just
about malaria. It’s about building Africa’s future resilience to all vector-borne
diseases. We’re using malaria as a pathfinder.”