Perera Hirunika, Wijerathna Tharaka
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol. 2019 Jul 10;2019:7240356. doi: 10.1155/2019/7240356. eCollection 2019.
Cholesterol is one of the most vital compounds for animals as it is involved in various biological processes and acts as the structural material in the body. However, insects do not have some of the essential enzymes in the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway and this makes them dependent on dietary cholesterol. Thus, the blocking of cholesterol uptake may have detrimental effects on the survival of the insect. Utilizing this character, certain phytochemicals can be used to inhibit mosquito sterol carrier protein-2 (AeSCP-2) activity via competitive binding and proven to have effective insecticidal activities against disease-transmitting mosquitoes and other insect vectors. A range of synthetic compounds, phytochemicals, and synthetic analogs of phytochemicals are found to have AeSCP-2 inhibitory activity. Phytochemicals such as alpha-mangostin can be considered as the most promising group of compounds when considering the minimum environmental impact and availability at a low cost. Once the few limitations such as very low persistence in the environment are addressed successfully, these chemicals may be used as an effective tool for controlling mosquitoes and other disease-transmitting vector populations.
胆固醇是动物体内最重要的化合物之一，因为它参与各种生物过程，并作为身体的结构物质。然而，昆虫在胆固醇生物合成途径中没有一些必需的酶，这使得它们依赖于膳食胆固醇。因此，阻断胆固醇摄取可能对昆虫的生存产生不利影响。利用这一特性，某些植物化学物质可通过竞争性结合来抑制蚊子的甾醇载体蛋白-2（AeSCP-2）活性，并已证明对传播疾病的蚊子和其他昆虫媒介具有有效的杀虫活性。一系列合成化合物、植物化学物质和植物化学物质的合成类似物被发现具有AeSCP-2抑制活性。考虑到对环境的影响最小且成本低廉，像α-山竹黄酮这样的植物化学物质可被视为最有前景的化合物组。一旦成功解决了诸如在环境中持久性极低等少数限制因素，这些化学物质可能会成为控制蚊子和其他疾病传播媒介种群的有效工具。
