Towards the understanding of tetrahydroquinolines action in Aedes aegypti: larvicide or adulticide?

Abstract

Aedes aegypti is an important vector of arboviruses such as dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika. Among the various types of insecticides used to combat this vector, the insect growth regulators have been developed and recommended for control of their larvae. In this work compounds with proven regulatory action, tetrahydroquinolines will be studied. These regulators act on the hormones responsible for the insect development. Ecdysone, one of the main hormones involved in this process has a specific receptor (EcR), where tetrahydroquinolines derivatives can bind, disrupting the normal action of this hormone, because they have structure similar to hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). In addition, studies show that this class of compounds interacts strongly in the potassium channel activated by calcium (BK channel). Thus, the goal is to study the action of compounds (tetrahydroquinolines) as insecticides and evaluate their larvicidal action (action on the ecdysone receptor) or adulticide (action on the BK channel) through homology modelling techniques, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations and aiming to propose a compound that presents both actions (larvicide / adulticide).