Dr. Penny Humaidah Hamid, a UGM lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH), has developed a kit to detect Aedes Aegypti mutations, particularly those that are strictly related to permethrin resistance.
“The kit formulation with an adjusted reaction and producing a positive reaction can indicate that mosquitoes in an area are resistant to permethrin group compounds,” she explained when contacted Friday (14/8).
This innovation was developed to solve the problem of the resistance of Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can spread dengue fever. She mentioned that efforts to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito by using chemicals in their habitat, both larvae and adult stages, did not have a significant impact because Dengue outbreak cases always occur every year. There have been many reports of mosquito immunity to various insecticides, such as the pyrethroid group.
“The resistance factor of mosquitoes to insecticides is very crucial because almost all of the dengue vector control strategies use that active ingredient,” she said.
Dengue virus infection has spread rapidly in the past decade. Transmission of diseases that are often found in countries in tropical and subtropical regions such as Southeast Asia has quickly circulated to South China, Pacific Ocean countries, America and even now threatens Europe. In the past 50 years, Dengue infection transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito has spread to many countries with an increase in cases of up to 2.5 billion victims in endemic countries. Meanwhile, the current infection rate is around 70% or the equivalent of 1.8 billion people in Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region.
Because of this condition, Penny and his team conducted research on developing an innovation kit to detect Aedes aegypti mutations which are strictly associated with permethrin resistance in Indonesia. The kit is ready-to-use consisting of specific primary compositions, real-time PCR reaction materials, fluorophore-labeled probes, positive control DNA and negative control DNA.
This practical kit formulation developed in 2016 has been tested for its effectiveness in detecting Aedes aegypti mutations that are resistant to permethrin in Bali, Jakarta, Makassar and Banjarmasin. Reaction results can indicate resistance in less than 24 hours.
“The effectiveness is 99 percent and the results can be seen in about a day since the isolation of the mosquito DNA,” she said.
The accuracy of the detection method and the quickly observable analysis of the results becomes a strong background for choosing the development of this method in detecting Dengue vector resistance to insecticides in Indonesia. Penny conveyed that the kit with the original formulation and labeled probe can be used by surveillance agencies, policymakers, and health workers to determine the accuracy of the application of insecticide rotation in eradicating the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. In the future, hopefully, the kit will help control efforts for various diseases that are mediated by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, such as Dengue, Zika, West Nile, and Chikungunya.
