The malaria parasites’ increased resistance to both medications and insecticides and environmental concerns about the use of traditional insecticides pose major challenges to decreasing the rate and breadth of infection.  In addition, insecticide-treated bed nets periodically must be re-treated to maintain their effectiveness, and most insecticides are too toxic for people to apply safely inside their homes. 

Dr. Bloomquist and his colleagues are using advanced molecular modeling and a novel chemical synthesis method called "click chemistry" in an effort to produce insecticides specifically targeted to the primary malaria vector mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae. The insecticides would work by inhibiting the essential enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in mosquitoes. They could be used as a potentially safer and more effective alternative to existing insecticides used in treating bed nets. 
 
Investigators are now working to tether the compounds to appropriate catalytic site structures to achieve their goals. Foremost,  among  these are the design of a highly selective compound for wild type mosquito receptor while maintaining potency for mosquitoes having an insecticide-resistant form of AChE.