Natural and Synthetic Allatotoxins: Suicide Substrates for Juvenile Hormone Biosynthesis

Insect-Plant Interactions: Endocrine Defences

It is the inevitable consequence of evolution that competitive species living together in a restricted space must try to exclude each other. Plants and insects are prime examples of this eternal competition, and although neither of these is in danger of extinction, their mutual defensive strategies are of compelling interest to the human race. Plant defences based on the insecticidal activity of certain of their secondary chemicals are readily apparent. Only through research into the fundamentals of insect physiology and biochemistry are more subtle defensive mechanisms revealed, linked to the disruption of the insect endocrine system. A diverse number of chemical structures are found in plants, which interfere with hormone-mediated processes in insects. Examples include: mimics of the insect's juvenile hormones such as juvabione from the balsam fir and the juvocimenes from sweet basil, which lethally disrupt insect development, and the precocenes found in Ageratum species, which act as anti-juvenile hormonal agents. The latter appear to serve as 'suicide substrates', undergoing activation into cytotoxins when acted on by specialized enzymes resident in the insect endocrine gland (corpus allatum) that is responsible for juvenile hormone biosynthesis and secretion. Consideration of these plant defensive strategies, which have been reached through aeons of evolutionary experimentation, may assist the human race in its defences against its principal competitors for food, fibre and health.

Synthesis and biological activity of esters in the trans-1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine series

Permanganate oxidation of acronycine (1) led to keto alcohol 4 which could be reduced to trans-1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine (3) using NaBH4. Acylation of 3 afforded 12, 13, and 14. These esters (12, 13, and 14) were more potent than 1 when tested against L-1210 cells in vitro. Diacetate 12 was evaluated in vivo against murine P-388 leukemia and was markedly active at a dose 16-fold lower than acronycine itself. Comparison of these results with those recently obtained in the cis-1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine series is discussed.

Synthesis and cytotoxic and antitumor activity of esters in the 1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine series

Seven 1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine and 1,2-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydro-6-demethoxyacronycine esters and diesters were synthesized via osmic oxidation of acronycine or 6-demethoxyacronycine followed by acylation. The 6-demethoxyacronycine derivatives were found to be inactive, whereas in contrast, all of the acronycine derivatives were more potent than acronycine itself when tested against L1210 cells in vitro. Four selected acronycine derivatives (17,19, 21, and 22) were evaluated in vivo against murine P388 leukemia and colon 38 adenocarcinoma implanted in mice. All compounds were markedly active against P388 at doses 4-16-fold lower than acronycine itself. Against the colon 38 adenocarcinoma, the three compounds 17, 21, and 22 were highly efficient. 1,2-Diacetoxy-1,2-dihydroacronycine (17) was the most active, all the treated mice being tumor-free on day 23.

Effects of precocene analogs on the nematode Caenorhabditis remanei (var. Bangaloreiensis). I. Structure/activity relations

Precocenes (PI and PII) and 114 of their analogs (PAs) were synthetized and tested on C. remanei embryos for their precocene-like (P-like) activities resulting in unusual development at sublethal doses. The P-like activity was quantitated by plotting the probit of the percentage of the developmentally affected survivors against the (log) dose to obtain the EC plot and the half effective concentration (EC50). All five PAs (PI, PII, 7-ethoxy-PII, 7-(prop-2-ynyloxy)-PI, and 6-methoxy-7-(prop-2-ynyloxy)-PII) which exert both antiallatal activity in insects and P-like activity in nematodes are 7-alkoxy-substituted 2,2-dimethylchromenes. Both activities can be enhanced by an additional 6-MeO-substitution or by an asymmetric 6,7-dialkoxy-substitution, on condition that R-7 is longer than R-6. There are many more similarities than dissimilarities in the structural requirements needed for antiallatal and P-like activities. All but three nonantiallatal PAs effective in nematodes are 7-prop-2-ynyloxy-subsituted; two are symmetrically 6,7-disubstituted, and one is heterosubstituted (thio-PI). All PAs with antiallatal but without P-like activity are 7-monosubstituted with a relatively long alkoxy group. Certain substitutions favor antiallatal activity and others P-like activity. The severe nematocidal effect of 6,7-methylenedioxy-2,2-dimethylchromene (inert in insects) is not accompanied by P-like activity. The present findings lend some indirect support to the supposition that JH-producing cells and/or JH-dependent function(s) might exist in the nematodes.

Insecticide metabolism and selective toxicity

Current research is focused on means to improve the environmental acceptability and selective toxicity of existing classes of insecticides and the search for new and species selective modes of insecticidal action. The study of species differences in metabolism and its modulation by changes in chemical structure is a vital component of this effort. The importance of metabolism is illustrated by examples from the major classes of insect control chemicals, namely organophosphorus and carbamate insecticides, DDT, pyrethroids and insect growth regulators.

The absolute configuration of precocene I dihydrodiols produced by metabolism of precocene I by corpora allata of Locusta migratoria, in vitro

The corpora allata from adult female Locusta migratoria metabolize precocene I (7-methoxy-2,2-dimethyl-2H-benzo [b]pyran to cis- & trans-precocene I dihydrodiols (3,4-dihydro-7-methoxy-2,2-dimethyl-2H-benzo [b]pyran-3,4-diol). Derivatization of the dihydrodiols with (-)menthoxy acetyl chloride allowed complete resolution of all four optical isomers. When [4-3H]-precocene I was incubated in vitro with Locusta migratoria corpora allata, it was metabolized stereospecifically to (-)trans-(3R,4S) and (+)cis-(3R,4R) dihydrodiols. Approximately half the precosyl residues bound to cellular macromolecules were discharged by heating to 95 degrees C at neutral pH, as dihydrodiols of the same stereochemistry.