DDT and pyrethroids

Mechanism of action can be an important factor determining selectivity. In the extreme case, one group of organisms has a site of action that is not present in another group. Thus, most of the insecticides that are neurotoxic have very little phytotoxicity indeed, some of them (e.g., the OPs dimethoate, disyston, and demeton-5 -methyl) are good systemic insecticides. Most herbicides that act upon photosynthesis (e.g., triaz-ines and substituted ureas) have very low toxicity to animals (Table 2.7). The resistance of certain strains of insects to insecticides is due to their possessing a mutant form of the site of action, which is insensitive to the pesticide. Examples include certain strains of housefly with knockdown resistance (mutant form of Na+ channel that is insensitive to DDT and pyrethroids) and strains of several species of insects that are resistant to OPs because they have mutant forms of acetylcholinesterase. These... 

Pyrethroids, such as p,p -DDT, are toxic because they interact with Na+ channels of the axonal membrane, thereby disturbing the transmission of nerve action potential (Eldefrawi and Eldefrawi 1990, and Chapter 5, Section 5.2.4 of this book). In both cases, marked hydrophobicity leads to bioconcentration of the insecticides in the axonal membrane and reversible association with the Na+ channel. Consequently, both DDT and pyrethroids show negative temperature coefficients in arthropods increasing temperature brings decreasing toxicity because it favors desorption of insecticide from the site of action. 

BouwmanH et ill., Simultaneous presence of DDT and Pyrethroid residues in human breast milk from a malaria endemic area in South Africa, Environmental Pollution (2006)... 

Pyrethroids are widely used to control many agriculturally and medically important insect pests. Due to intensive use of pyrethroids in pest control, many pest populations have developed resistance to these compounds. One major mechanism of pyrethroid resistance, conferred by the knock down resistance gene (Mr), is reduced target site (sodium channel) sensitivity to DDT and pyrethroids. Studies on the molecular basis of Mr and Mr-type resistance in various insects are enhancing our understanding of the structure and function of insect sodium channels and the molecular interaction between insect sodium channels and pyrethroids. In this chapter, I will review recent advances in... 

Fore recently a comparable enhanced inhibition in resistant strains has been observed with aryloxadiazolone anticholinesterases (38). A second promising example is the discovery that some natural and synthetic isobutylamides are selectively toxic against houseflies that carry the super-kdr resistance trait (39). This gene causes an alteration in the sensitivity of the site of action for DDT and pyrethroids and is a major threat to the continued efficacy of synthetic pyrethroids in many of their applications. 

Intoxication with DDT results in ataxia, loss of coordination, convulsions, and hyperexcitation of insects and mammals. Various regions of the nervous system were stimulated to discharge repetitively either in response to a single stimulus or spontaneously. These included sensory cells, synapses, and nerve fibers (2.3.36.37). Repetitive after-discharges in nerve fibers were due to an increase in the depolarizing (negative) after-potential by DDT (M, 39). Repetitive responses in neuromuscular junctions have been shown to originate in presynaptic nerve terminals (40). It appears that DDT and pyrethroids exert similar effects on the nerve membrane sodium channel (41). Detailed analyses as described below clearly show that this is actually the case. 

It is well established that the modes of action of DDT and pyrethroids are somewhat alike, and that genes for resistance to DDT also confer cross-resistance/tolerance to pyrethroids in a number of arthropod species (25). This probably is true for the tobacco budworm as well. With its past history of DDT resistance and the likelihood that genes for resistance to DDT still exist within the population, the tobacco budworm would be expected to have a head start in developing resistance to pyrethroids. It is interesting that H. zea. which also demonstrated high levels of DDT resistance... 

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