Traditional folk therapies indicate that insects have diverse medicinal potentials. However, the therapeutic application of insect chitosan and its derivatives has not been explored. To investigate the application of chitosan and its derivatives, the carboxymethyl derivative of chitosan (CM-Ch) was extracted from two dipteran larvae species, Chrysomya albiceps and Sarcophaga aegyptiaca. The degree of deacetylation (DD) and CM-Ch functional groups were validated using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR), respectively. The molecular weight was estimated using MALDI-TOF MS analysis. The effect of CM-Ch on the morphology and proliferation of human liver HepG2 cancer cells was assessed. IC50 of CM-Ch induced significant growth-inhibitory effects in HepG2 cells. CM-Ch treatment altered the morphology of HepG2 in a dose-dependent manner and induced apoptosis in a caspase-dependent manner. CM-Ch treatment showed no signs of toxicity, and no alterations in liver and kidney biochemical markers were observed in albino rats. A CM-Ch derivative from commercial crustacean chitosan was used to assess the efficacy of the insect-derived CM-Ch. The data presented here introduce insect CM-Ch as a promising, inexhaustible, safe derivative of chitosan with antitumor potential in liver cancer. This is the first report highlighting the anticancer activity of insect CM-Ch in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
Animals have evolved several chemosensory systems for detecting potentially dangerous foods in the environment. Activation of specific sensory cells within these chemosensory systems usually elicits an aversive behavioral response, leading to avoidance of the noxious foods. Blowflies respond to sugars, salts and water through the activation of specific chemoreceptor neurons in the antennal, labellar and tarsal chemosensillae. These insects also detect deterrent stimuli with the so called fifth or deterrent cell. Using forensically important flies (blowflies) as a model organism, the question was if these flies have the ability to detect the nutritional value of corpses when injected with different doses of morphine. In the attempt to gain information on the mechanisms underlying reception of noxious and repellent compounds, electrophysiological and behavioral experiments have been performed to confirm the hypothesis that morphine sulfate has a repellent effect on fly attraction to corpse. Electrophysiological and behavioral results indicate that morphine sulfate activate the fifth cell in the chemosensillae. In field behavioral test, carrions injected with doses of morphine sulfate, are colonized later with flies than morphine-free carrions. This finding is in accordance with the spike frequency elevation observed for the fifth cell activity. The prevailing activation of the deterrent cell by morphine sulfate is directly coupled with a coherent behavioral output. Therefore, comparison of behavioral and electrophysiological data, affirm that blowfly identify morphine sulfate as a deterrent stimuli by activation of the fifth cell.
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