Eco-friendly-synthesized chitosan-zinc oxide-selenium nanocomposites: characterization and insecticidal activity
Abstract
In this work, the chitosan-zinc oxide-selenium nanocomposites (Ch-ZnO-Se NCs) were prepared in an affordable and eco-friendly way. Throughout the synthesis stage, chitosan served as reducing and stabilising agent. Different analytical techniques were employed to characterize the resulting nanocomposites. The findings demonstrated that irregular spherical-nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 73.95 nm were the predominant feature of the generated Ch-ZnO-Se NCs. The present study demonstrates that the mosquito vector Culex pipiens exhibit larvicidal and adulticidal effects upon exposure to the generated Ch-ZnO-Se NCs. The 23.308, 57.167 μg/ml and 30.632, 52.063 μg/ml were the recorded LC50 and LC90 values, respectively. Adult mortality reached 97.33% at the same dose, whereas the maximum larval mortality reached 100% at 60 μg/ml. As applied doses rose, the glutathione S-transferase (GST) enzyme increased but the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme declined. Molecular docking studies were conducted on concentrations of Ch-ZnO-Se NCs against acetylcholinesterase (AChE, PDB: 5x61) and glutathione S-transferase (GST, PDB: 1pn9) using MOE 2015. Concentrations (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 μg/ml) of Ch-ZnO-Se NCs exhibited stronger binding affinities than the controls, with 40 μg/ml showing the highest interaction (- 8.4233 kcal/mol) for AChE and 30 μg/ml (- 6.6624 kcal/mol) for GST. The results align with in-vitro assays, suggesting these compounds as potential inhibitors.
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.