An effective new weapon to fight the transmission of malaria might be lying there some leagues under the sea. A study suggests that sea cucumbers could provide a potential new weapon to block transmission of the malaria parasite.

The slug-like creature produces a protein, lectin, which impairs development of the parasites. An international team genetically engineered mosquitoes - which carry the malaria parasite - to produce the same protein in their gut when feeding, reports BBC News website.

The PLoS Pathogens study found the protein disrupted development of the parasites inside the insects' stomach. Malaria causes severe illness in 500 million people worldwide each year, and kills more than one million.

To stimulate the mosquitoes to produce lectin, the researchers fused part of the gene from the sea cucumber which produces the protein with a gene from the insect. The results showed that the technique was effective against several of the parasites which cause malaria.

Lectin is poisonous to the parasites when they are still in an early stage of development called an ookinete. Usually, the ookinetes migrate through the mosquito's stomach wall, and produce thousands of daughter cells which invade the salivary glands, and infect a human when the mosquito takes a blood meal. But when exposed to lectin the ookinetes are killed before they can start their deadly journey.