Construction of TUATinsecta database that integrated plant and insect database for screening phytophagous insect metabolic products with medicinal potential

• Published in: Scientific reports 2020-10, Vol.10 (1), p.17509, Article 17509
• Main Authors: Nakane, Wakana, Nakamura, Hisashi, Nakazato, Takeru, Kaminaga, Natsuki, Nakano, Miho, Sakamoto, Takuma, Nishiko, Maaya, Bono, Hidemasa, Ogiwara, Isao, Kitano, Yoshikazu, Iwabuchi, Kikuo, Kinoshita, Kaoru, Simpson, Richard J., Tabunoki, Hiroko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/154; 631/601/1466; Animals; Biological activity; Biological Products - chemistry; Butterflies; Butterflies & moths; Cell lines; Cell Proliferation; Cell Survival; Chloroform; Citrus; Cytotoxicity; Databases, Factual; Drug Discovery; Entomology - methods; Feces - chemistry; HeLa Cells; Hep G2 Cells; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Inflammation; Inflammatory diseases; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Insecta - chemistry; Insects; Larva; Larvae; Medicinal plants; Metabolism; Metabolites; multidisciplinary; Organic solvents; Plant Leaves - chemistry; Plants; Poncirus; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Secondary metabolites; Solvents; Species
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74590-z

Phytophagous insect larvae feed on plants containing secondary metabolic products with biological activity against other predatory organisms. Phytophagous insects can use their specialised metabolic systems to covert these secondary metabolic products into compounds with therapeutic properties useful to mankind. Some Asians drink tea decoctions made from phytophagous insect frass which is believed to be effective against inflammatory diseases. However, insects that can convert plant-derived secondary metabolic products into useful human therapeutic agents remain poorly studied. Here, we constructed the TUATinsecta database by integrating publicly plant/insect datasets for the purpose of selecting insect species. Using TUAT-insecta we selected the Asian swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus larvae fed on several species of Rutaceous plants and examined whether the plant-derived secondary metabolites, especially those present in frass, were chemically altered or not. We extracted metabolic products from frass using three organic solvents with different polarities, and evaluated solvent fractions for their cytotoxic effects against several human cell lines. We found that chloroform frass extracts from P. xuthus larvae fed on Poncirus trifoliata leaves contained significant cytotoxic activity. Our findings demonstrate that screening of insect species using the ‘TUATinsecta’ database provides an important pipeline for discovering novel therapeutic agents that might be useful for mankind.