×
Didn't find what you were looking for?
Ask a question
Home
Search
Gallery
Blog
Dictionary
Textbooks
Resource Library
Flashcards
Latest Topics
Ask a Question
Home
Take a Tour
Study Tips
Help Pages
Contact Us
Gallery
Recently Added
Search
Blog
Dictionary
Add New Word
Random Term
Recent Changes
Resource Library
Share Your Resources
Recently Added
Search
Ask a Question
Log In
Sign Up
homework help
portal
Q & A Board
Gallery
Notes and Downloads
This Board
Research Articles
Entire Website using Google
Forum
Search
Advanced Search
Image Gallery
Resource Library
Browse by
Textbooks
Chat
Subjects
Recent
Posts
•
Latest Topics
•
Unanswered Questions
Top Posters
Since Sunday
18
13
r
6
6
u
5
V
4
b
4
r
4
o
4
d
4
n
4
l
4
Home
Q & A Board
Discussion
News Articles and Discussion
Print
New Topic
INSECT REPELLENT Thousands Of Times More Powerful Discovered !!!
bio_man
bio_man
wrote...
Administrator
Educator
Posts:
32567
Rep:
3417
15
12 years ago
12 years ago
INSECT REPELLENT Thousands Of Times More Powerful Discovered !!!
Imagine an insect repellant that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET – the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellants – but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants.
That possibility has been created by the discovery of a new class of insect repellant made in the laboratory of Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology Laurence Zwiebel and reported this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"It wasn't something we set out to find," said David Rinker, a graduate student who performed the study in collaboration with graduate student Gregory Pask and post-doctoral fellow Patrick Jones. "It was an anomaly that we noticed in our tests."
The tests were conducted as part of a major interdisciplinary research project to develop new ways to control the spread of malaria by disrupting a mosquito's sense of smell supported by the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative funded by the Foundation for the NIH through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"It's too soon to determine whether this specific compound can act as the basis of a commercial product," Zwiebel cautioned. "But it is the first of its kind and, as such, can be used to develop other similar compounds that have characteristics appropriate for commercialization."
The discovery of this new class of repellant is based on insights that scientists have gained about the basic nature of the insect's sense of smell in the last few years. Although the mosquito's olfactory system is housed in its antennae, 10 years ago biologists thought that it worked in the same way at the molecular level as it does in mammals. A family of special proteins called odorant receptors, or ORs, sits on the surface of nerve cells in the nose of mammals and in the antennae of mosquitoes. When these receptors come into contact with smelly molecules, they trigger the nerves signaling the detection of specific odors.
In the last few years, however, scientists have been surprised to learn that the olfactory system of mosquitoes and other insects is fundamentally different. In the insect system, conventional ORs do not act autonomously. Instead, they form a complex with a unique co-receptor (called Orco) that is also required to detect odorant molecules. ORs are spread all over the antennae and each responds to a different odor. To function, however, each OR must be connected to an Orco.
"Think of an OR as a microphone that can detect a single frequency," Zwiebel said. "On her antenna the mosquito has dozens of types of these microphones, each tuned to a specific frequency. Orco acts as the switch in each microphone that tells the brain when there is a signal. When a mosquito smells an odor, the microphone tuned to that smell will turn "on" its Orco switch. The other microphones remain off. However, by stimulating Orco directly we can turn them all on at once. This would effectively overload the mosquito's sense of smell and shut down her ability to find blood."
Because the researchers couldn't predict what chemicals might modulate OR-Orco complexes, they decided to "throw the kitchen sink" at the problem. Through their affiliation with Vanderbilt's Institute of Chemical Biology, they gained access to Vanderbilt's high throughput screening facility, a technology intended for the drug discovery process, not for the screening of insect ORs.
Jones used genetic engineering techniques to insert mosquito odorant receptors into the human embryonic kidney cells used in the screening process. Rinker tested these cells against a commercial library of 118,000 small molecules normally used in drug development. They expected to find, and did find, a number of compounds that triggered a response in the conventional mosquito ORs they were screening, but they were surprised to find one compound that consistently triggered OR-Orco complexes, leading them to conclude that they had discovered the first molecule that directly stimulates the Orco co-receptor. They have named the compound VUAA1.
Although it is not an odorant molecule, the researchers determined that VUAA1 activates insect OR-Orco complexes in a manner similar to a typical odorant molecule. Jones also verified that mosquitoes respond to exposure to VUAA1, a crucial step in demonstrating that VUAA1 can affect a mosquito's behavior.
"If a compound like VUAA1 can activate every mosquito OR at once, then it could overwhelm the insect's sense of smell, creating a repellant effect akin to stepping onto an elevator with someone wearing too much perfume, except this would be far worse for the mosquito," Jones said.
The researchers have just begun behavioral studies with the compound. In preliminary tests with mosquitoes, they have found that VUAA1 is thousands of times more effective than DEET.
They have also established that the compound stimulates the OR-Orco complexes of flies, moths and ants. As a result, "VUAA1 opens the door for the development of an entirely new class of agents, which could be used not only to disrupt disease vectors, but also the nuisance insects in your backyard or the agricultural pests in your crops," Jones said.
Many questions must be answered before VUAA1 can be considered for commercial applications. Zwiebel's team is currently working with researchers in Vanderbilt's Drug Discovery Program to pare away the parts of VUAA1 that don't contribute to its activity. Once that is done, they will begin testing its toxicity.
Vanderbilt University has filed for a patent on this class of compounds and is talking with potential corporate licensees interested in incorporating them into commercial products, with special focus on development of products to reduce the spread of malaria in the developing world.
Read 720 times
Report
Related Topics
Solved
Powerful contractions that occur a few times each day in the colon are called
Solved
A mixture of barbiturates and alcohol is about ______ times as powerful as eithe
Solved
Pluto was discovered in: (Multiple Choice)
Solved
Bal Seal discovered that it was okay for some workers to have nothing to do at times. The reason for ...
Solved
The proteins PER and TIM, originally discovered in insect but now found in mammals also, influence ...
The use of insect repellent with ____________________ DEET is recommended to prevent tick bites. ...
Solved
Why are optical fibers important for communication?
Solved
A manufacturer of mosquito repellent claims that the average amount of time that its repellent is ...
Show More
New Topic
Quick Reply
[center][color=gray]Please [b]login or register[/b] to leave a reply[/color][/center]
Explore
Post your homework questions and get free online help from our incredible volunteers
302 People Browsing
283 Signed Up Today
Start New Topic
Take the Tour
Study Tips
Study Tools
New
Topics Trending
Browse by Textbook
Related Images
846
573065
4
Your Opinion
Does a gender wage gap exist in America?
Yes
No
Not sure
Votes: 468
Previous poll results:
Do you trust social media networks with protecting your privacy?
Latest Blogs
3D Imaging: A Practical Use of Mathematics
How to cut in front of a line (persuasion tactic)
The Secrets of Longevity: Exploring Okinawa, Japan
Unusual Plant Defenses
A link between depression and heart disease
Ready to ask a question on
Biology Forums
?
Try it out
Over six years Craig earned interest of $8,400 on an investment of $20,000. What effective rate of ...
-
Mathematics
Potential cure for Schizophrenia mental disorder disease.
-
Nursing and Clinical
Calculate the effective annual rate for 9.4% compounded quarterly.
-
Mathematics
CBD as T-Cell booster studies
-
Cell Biology
a solution is prepared in which a trace or small amount of Fe2+ is added to a much larger amount of solution..
-
Chemistry
If the population of Dodge City is decreasing at a rate of 19% per year, how long will it take to ...
-
Mathematics
What quantity of charge is required to reduce 32.9 g of CrCl3 to chromium metal? (1 faraday = 96,485 coulombs)
-
Chemistry
How do mutations lead to the formation of new species?
-
General Biology
Lansky Finance Company was charging 1.87% per month on overdue accounts but negative publicity and ...
-
Mathematics
Calculate the effective annual rate for 18% compounded annually.
-
Mathematics
Loading...