A substance that occurs naturally in human skin could become a new alternative to insect repellents, BBC News reports, and in the wake of the latest West Nile Virus outbreaks across the U.S., fighting off the potentially deadly bug bites is of utmost importance.
At a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, a team of researchers discussed a compound that occurs naturally in human skin which could be used to block a mosquitoes' ability to smell their potential target. When the team placed a hand covered in the compound inside a mosquito enclosure, the bugs completely ignored it. Scientists have known for a while that some mosquitoes find some people from attractive than others, and now they have some clues as to why this may be.
"Repellents have been the mainstay for preventing mosquito bites... [but] we are exploring a different approach, with substances that impair the mosquito's sense of smell. If a mosquito can't sense that dinner is ready, there will be no buzzing, no landing and no bite," Ulrich Bernier of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), who presented the findings, told BBC News. He explained that hundreds of compounds in human skin make up a person's smell, and his team has isolated one particular group of chemical compounds, 1-methylpiperzine, that acts as a scent-mask against hungry mosquitoes, and could be added to a variety of lotions and cosmetics.
"If you put your hand in a cage of mosquitoes where we have released some of these inhibitors, almost all just sit on the back wall and don't even recognize that the hand is in there," Bernier said. "We call that anosmia or hyposmia, the inability to sense smells or a reduced ability to sense smells."
The newly pinpointed group of compounds could act as an alternative to the popular insect repellent ingriedent DEET, which scientists said last month is starting to lose its effectiveness, as mosquitoes seemed to have adapted to the repellent.
"Although we already have good repellents on the market, there is still room for new active ingredients," James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said to BBC News of the latest research. "The challenge that scientists face is improving upon the protection provided by existing repellents. If a new repellent can be developed which is more effective, longer lasting and affordable, it would be of great benefit to travelers and people living in disease endemic countries."
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mosquitoes, which are responsible for the spread of the malaria, among other diseases, are among the world's most deadly disease-carrying creatures.
