Efeito de inibidores de tripsina obtidos de sementes de Leucaena leucocephala (Lam) R. de Witt sobre o desenvolvimento de Aedes aegypti

Abstract

Dengue fever is currently the most important arboviral disease in the world, being widely distributed among the continents and having increased incidence areas due to climate change. One of the reasons that makes it so important is the absence of an effective vaccine against the four virus serotypes. So, to control this disease is necessary to fight the disease vector, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Nowadays, health programs use synthetic insecticides to control the mosquito populations. However, the emergence of resistant populations to these insecticides is an obstacle to combating this mosquito. Thus, it is necessary to search for new insecticides or molecules capable of enhancing the toxic effect of current insecticides. The present study aimed to obtain trypsin inhibitors from Leucaena leucocephala seeds and evaluate the insecticidal potential of these molecules against Ae. aegypti larvae survival and development. For this, the proteins of L. leucocephala seeds were extracted, fractionated and subjected to anhydrotrypsin affinity chromatography to obtain a trypsin-enriched fraction (called sLlTi), which was biochemically characterized and used at a concentration of 0.3 mg/mL in assays of larvae development. Biochemical characterization of sLlTi concluded that the inhibitors are heat resistant (the activity was retained after heating for 30 min at 100 ° C), showed considerable resistance to the reducing agent DTT and reduction of their inhibitory activity against trypsin was demonstrated only when incubated with 100 mM DTT for 120 min. The inhibitor is also resistant to pH changes in a range from 2 to 10. The reverse zymograms revealed the presence of protein bands with apparent mass near 20 kDa. Biological testing in vitro showed that the sLlTi showed trypsin inhibitory activity greater than 90% and that sLlTi is also capable to inhibit Ae. aegypti digestive enzymes by 70%. After two-dimensional electrophoresis isoforms with pI ranging from 4 to 7, approximately, were observed. These inhibitors were able to inhibit proteases of Ae. aegypti in vivo by 56%, and was capable to delay the larval development after incubation for 10 days. Thus, sLlTi contains proteins with promising insecticidal action against dengue vector.