Voltage-sensitive chloride channels as a screen for new mosquito toxicants

The significance of the project is related to mosquito vectors and how they affect the human population on a daily basis.  Mosquitoes are vectors for a large number of critical human diseases such as West Nile Virus, dengue, yellow fever virus, and malaria.  These diseases kill millions of people a year worldwide and widespread resistance to pyrethroids is threatening vector control programs directed against malaria. 

Previous studies have shown that voltage-sensitive chloride channels have insecticidal and nematicidal properties.  Boina et al. 2008 found the chloride channel blocker, DIDS to be insecticidal and therefore its target is amenable to high throughput screening for optimization.  We recently described the chloride channels expressed in Anopheles gambiae Sua-1B cells through patch clamp studies, which identified a class of calcium-activated chloride channel, with currents not typical of other voltage-gated channels (Dikov et al. 2013). 

The present experiments screened Sua1B insect cells with established chloride channel compounds as a model screening system.  Cell counting experiments were used for growth and longevity experiments while planar and whole cell patching techniques were used to record electrophysiological properties of the cells.