Triagem de compostos bioativos tendo como base a ativação do receptor de ecdisteroides usando células embrionárias S2 de Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges of modern agriculture is producing safe and sufficient food for the population. Over the past five decades, conventional insecticides have been used to control agricultural insect pests and meet food needs. All synthetic and biological pesticides with a known mechanism of action act mainly at the protein level. Target or binding proteins known through chemoinformatics and molecular biology can contribute to the development of new insecticides. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the main developmental transitions are induced by steroid hormones that regulate the biological processes of gene expression and transcription factors. Thus, the objective of this research was to evaluate the cytotoxicity and establish the agonist and antagonist activity of three synthetic molecules F2515-1557; F2515-2741 and F3406-3330, obtained by virtual screening and eight extracts from plant species: Canutillo, Brazilian pepper, Clove, Neem, Cinnamon, Fern dentate, Brazilian fern, Aivenca, Clove in the EcR of S2 cells of D. melanogaster. To this end, analysis of the interaction of the receptor with synthetic molecules and screening experiments with cytotoxicity bioassays was carried out, and through the expression of luciferase in the treated cells, the agonist or antagonist activity was determined using the natural insect hormone 20E as a control. The results found in the coupling of synthetic molecules showed bonds with the amino acids Methionine (MET) and Threonine (THR), in similar or very close positions to all molecules, in addition to van der Waals interactions between the molecules and the protein. Although the molecules used in the bioassays did not show agonist or antagonist effects, the extract from the Brazilian Fern plant showed an antagonist effect with 91.7% inhibition of the hormone 20-hydroecdysonium.