Eco-friendly control of malaria and arbovirus vectors using the mosquitofish Gambusia affinis and ultra-low dosages of Mimusops elengi-synthesized silver nanoparticles: towards an integrative approach?

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases represent a deadly threat for millions of people worldwide. However, the use of synthetic insecticides to control Culicidae may lead to high operational costs and adverse non-target effects. Plant-borne compounds have been proposed for rapid extracellular synthesis of mosquitocidal nanoparticles. Their impact against biological control agents of mosquito larval populations has been poorly studied. We synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNP) using the aqueous leaf extract of Mimusops elengi as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The formation of AgNP was studied using different biophysical methods, including UV-vis spectrophotometry, TEM, XRD, EDX and FTIR. Low doses of AgNP showed larvicidal and pupicidal toxicity against the malaria vector Anopheles stephensi and the arbovirus vector Aedes albopictus. AgNP LC50 against A. stephensi ranged from 12.53 (I instar larvae) to 23.55 ppm (pupae); LC50 against A. albopictus ranged from 11.72 ppm (I) to 21.46 ppm (pupae). In the field, the application of M. elengi extract and AgNP (10 × LC50) led to 100 % larval reduction after 72 h. In adulticidal experiments, AgNP showed LC50 of 13.7 ppm for A. stephensi and 14.7 ppm for A. albopictus. The predation efficiency of Gambusia affinis against A. stephensi and A. albopictus III instar larvae was 86.2 and 81.7 %, respectively. In AgNP-contaminated environments, predation was 93.7 and 88.6 %, respectively. This research demonstrates that M. elengi-synthesized AgNP may be employed at ultra-low doses to reduce larval populations of malaria and arbovirus vectors, without detrimental effects on predation rates of mosquito natural enemies, such as larvivorous fishes.

Green-Synthesized Mosquito Oviposition Attractants and Ovicides: Towards a Nanoparticle-Based “Lure and Kill” Approach?

“…albopictus III instar larvae was 86.2 and 81.7 %, respectively. In AgNPs-contaminated environments, predation was 93.7 and 88.6 %, respectively [41]. Values are mean ± SD of five replicates Green-Synthesized Mosquito Oviposition Attractants and… 305 Table 9 Toxicity of green-synthesized silver nanoparticles using the Aganosma cymosa leaf extract against three non-target natural enemies sharing the same ecological niche of Anopheles, Aedes …”

Eco-friendly drugs from the marine environment: spongeweed-synthesized silver nanoparticles are highly effective on Plasmodium falciparum and its vector Anopheles stephensi, with little non-target effects on predatory copepods

“…Recently, Murugan et al (2015i) studied that the anti-plasmodial activity of Senna occidentalis and Ocimum basilicum against CQ-resistant (CQ-r) and CQsensitive (CQ-s) strains of P. falciparum; IC 50 of S. occidentalis were 48.80 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 54.28 μg/ml (CQ-r), while O. basilicum IC 50 were 68.14 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 67.27 μg/ml (CQ-r). Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, the anti-plasmodial activity of green-synthesized metal nanoparticles has been scarcely studied (Benelli 2016a, b;. For example, Murugan et al (2015h) reported that anti-plasmodial activity of seaweedsynthesized AgNP against CQ-resistant (CQ-r) and CQsensitive (CQ-s) strains of P. falciparum, IC 50 of U. lactuca extract were 57.26 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 66.36 μg/ml (CQ-r), while U. lactuca-synthesized AgNP IC 50 were 76.33 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 79.13 μg/ml (CQ-r).…”

“…Biological control of mosquito vectors using predatory copepods, tadpoles, and fishes also received attention (Marten 2000;Murugan et al 2015a, b, c;Subramaniam et al 2016a, b). Predation is an important factor for the maintenance of trophic equilibrium of ecological communities, including aquatic ones.…”

“…The utilization of plants for nanoparticle synthesis can be advantageous over other biological processes, because it eliminates the elaborate process of maintaining cell cultures and can also be suitably scaled up for large-scale nanoparticle synthesis (Shankar et al 2004;Chandramohan et al 2016;Jaganathan et al 2016). Recently, several plants have been screened for efficient and rapid extracellular synthesis of metal nanoparticles with different mosquitocidal and antisplamodial properties (Benelli 2016a, b). The marine environment is an outstanding reservoir of bioactive natural products, which have many applications against pests, parasites, and pathogens (Kalimuthu et al 2014;Murugan et al 2016).…”

Nanofabrication of Graphene Quantum Dots with High Toxicity Against Malaria Mosquitoes, Plasmodium falciparum and MCF-7 Cancer Cells: Impact on Predation of Non-target Tadpoles, Odonate Nymphs and Mosquito Fishes

“…To the best of our knowledge, scarce information is available about how ultra-low dosages of nanoparticles impact behavioral traits of aquatic organisms sharing the same ecological niche as mosquitoes [11, 25, 32-34, 36, 37, 82]. For instance, Subramaniam et al [85] reported that Mimusops elengi-synthesized silver nanoparticles did not negatively impact predation rates of the mosquitofish G. affinis against A. stephensi and Aedes albopictus, validating this novel control tool in an environment-friendly perspective. As regards to carbon nanoparticles, Murugan et al [10] have pointed out that a single treatment with 2 ppm of carbon nanoparticles enhanced the predation efficiency of Lethocerus indicus against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae.…”