Synthesis and bioassay of improved mosquito repellents predicted from chemical structure

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2008-05, Vol.105 (21), p.7359-7364
• Main Authors: Katritzky, Alan R, Wang, Zuoquan, Slavov, Svetoslav, Tsikolia, Maia, Dobchev, Dimitar, Akhmedov, Novruz G, Hall, C. Dennis, Bernier, Ulrich R, Clark, Gary G, Linthicum, Kenneth J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aedes aegypti; Agriculture; Amides; Animals; Bioassay; Bioassays; Biological Assay; Bites and stings; Chemical compounds; Chemical reactions; chemical structure; CODESSA PRO software; computer software; Correlation analysis; Culicidae; Culicidae - drug effects; Drug Design; insect repellents; Insect Repellents - chemical synthesis; Insect Repellents - chemistry; Insect Repellents - pharmacology; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Modeling; Models, Chemical; Molecular structure; Molecules; Mosquitoes; Mosquitos; N-acylpiperidines; Neural networks; Neural Networks (Computer); Organic farming; Physical Sciences; Piperidines; Piperidines - chemical synthesis; Piperidines - chemistry; Piperidines - pharmacology; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; quantitative structure-activity relationships; Receptors; Software; synthesis
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0800571105

Mosquito repellency data on acylpiperidines derived from the U.S. Department of Agriculture archives were modeled by using molecular descriptors calculated by CODESSA PRO software. An artificial neural network model was developed for the correlation of these archival results and used to predict the repellent activity of novel compounds of similar structures. A series of 34 promising N-acylpiperidine mosquito repellent candidates (4a-4q') were synthesized by reactions of acylbenzotriazoles 2a-2p with piperidines 3a-3f. Compounds (4a-4q') were screened as topically applied mosquito repellents by measuring the duration of repellency after application to cloth patches worn on the arms of human volunteers. Some compounds that were evaluated repelled mosquitoes as much as three times longer than N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), the most widely used repellent throughout the world. The newly measured durations of repellency were used to obtain a superior correlation equation relating mosquito repellency to molecular structure.