(NIH) Better knowledge of why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes could lead to new ways to prevent mosquito bites. In turn, this could help prevent mosquito-borne illnesses, which sicken hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Mosquitoes use four types of molecules called co-receptors to help detect odors. The researchers performed a set of experiments where they eliminated these co-receptors in different groups of mosquitoes. For three of the co-receptors, removal of each decreased the general interest of the mosquitoes in human odors. However, the mosquitoes could still distinguish between the most and least attractive people.
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