Target-based rational design of new mosquito repellents

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Blood-feeding mosquitoes carry many potentially lethal diseases, including encephalitis, malaria, and Yellow Fever. Diseases that were previously considered eradicated or well under control in most developed nations, such as malaria and viral encephalitis, have now recurred and are spreading despite advances in medicine throughout the past century. For example, malaria is the leading tropical disease caused by parasites in humans. During the twentieth century, malaria was gradually restricted to under-developed or developing nations, but this may no longer be the case in the future. Although until recently the vast majority of malaria cases were limited to sub-Saharan Africa, malaria now occurs in areas where it had previously been controlled and causes illness in over 400 million people around the world each year. The appicants propose to develop novel mosquito repellents, called Arometics, that function by inducing anosmia via blocking the function of proteins directly involved in olfaction. Arometics will avoid many of the problems associated with the present generation of mosquito repellents including adverse reactions to extended epidermal exposure. The proposed product should have widespread appeal in the consumer market (estimated at more than $500 million/year worldwide for insect repellents) as well as the United States military.