Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 29;19(10):e0310177. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310177. eCollection 2024.
An important defense against the deadly diseases that mosquitoes transmit is the application of insecticides that reduce mosquito populations. Unfortunately, the evolution and subsequent spread of insecticide resistance has decreased their efficacy. Therefore, new mosquito control strategies are needed. One class of larvicides, known as photosensitive insecticides, or PSIs, kills larvae via light-activated oxidative damage. PSIs are promising larvicides because of their high larvicidal efficacy, rapid photodegradation, inexpensive cost, and mechanism that is dissimilar to other insecticide classes. We explored a novel delivery strategy for increasing both the larvicidal efficiency and environmental biocompatibility of PSIs, known as yeast encapsulation. Using the PSIs, curcumin and methylene blue, we measured the survival of Anopheles gambiae larvae and Escherichia coli following exposure to either non-encapsulated or yeast-encapsulated PSIs and a photoperiod. Yeast encapsulation increased the phototoxicity of both curcumin and methylene blue against mosquito larvae, likely by increasing ingestion. Furthermore, yeast encapsulation protected E. coli from the phototoxicity of yeast-encapsulated curcumin, but not yeast-encapsulated methylene blue. Yeast encapsulation increases the larvicidal efficacy of a PSI while also increasing biocompatibility. Therefore, yeast encapsulation of PSIs is a promising insecticide delivery strategy for mosquito control.
一种对抗蚊子传播致命疾病的重要防御手段是使用杀虫剂来减少蚊子数量。不幸的是，杀虫剂耐药性的进化和随后的传播降低了它们的效果。因此，需要新的蚊子控制策略。一类杀幼虫剂，称为光敏杀虫剂或 PSIs，通过光激活的氧化损伤杀死幼虫。PSIs 是很有前途的杀幼虫剂，因为它们具有高效的杀幼虫效果、快速光降解、成本低廉以及与其他杀虫剂类别不同的作用机制。我们探索了一种增加 PSIs 的杀虫效率和环境生物相容性的新的递送策略，称为酵母包封。我们使用 PSIs，姜黄素和亚甲蓝，测量了暴露于未包封或酵母包封的 PSIs 以及光照周期后的冈比亚按蚊幼虫和大肠杆菌的存活率。酵母包封增加了姜黄素和亚甲蓝对蚊子幼虫的光毒性，可能是通过增加摄入。此外，酵母包封保护大肠杆菌免受酵母包封姜黄素的光毒性，但不受酵母包封亚甲蓝的影响。酵母包封增加了 PSI 的杀幼虫效果，同时也提高了生物相容性。因此，PSIs 的酵母包封是一种很有前途的用于蚊子控制的杀虫剂递送策略。
