Fig. 18
Pathway 16 Human health: Potential immunopathological responses via biting exposure to gRNA expressed in saliva of dsxFCRISPRh transgenic could lead to increases in morbidity and mortality in humans. As the gRNA in the gene drive cassette is expressed ubiquitously and constitutively from the U6 promoter, it could be present in the saliva of transgenics. In vitro transcribed gRNA has been reported to induce strong expression of cytokines and cytotoxicity [145,146,147]. Induction of such cytokines from exposure to gRNA in humans could lead to immunopathological reactions such as aberrant inflammatory responses resulting in excessive pain, pyrogenic fever, inflammation and tissue damage, potentially increasing morbidity and mortality [148]. The net effect of the population suppression gene drive could ultimately be to reduce this potential harm by reducing the density of mosquitoes including transgenic ones