Effects of the insecticide Fipronil on membrane models. Experimental and computational studies

FELSZTYNA, IVÁN; SÁNCHEZ-BORZONE, MARIELA EUGENIA; MIGUEL, VIRGINIA; GARCÍA, DANIEL ASMED

Virtual

Simposio; II Virtual Mini-Symposium of the Society of Latinamerican Biophysicists (SoBLA); 2022

Society of Latinamerican Biophysicists (SoBLA)

Fipronil is a widely used phenylpyrazole insecticide with high activity against insect pests and low toxicity for mammals. It exerts itsaction by blocking the passage of chloride ions in the central nervous system GABA and GluCl receptors. Given that these aremembrane intrinsic proteins and that Fipronil is a highly lipophilic compound, non-specific effects on the physical properties of themembrane cannot be discarded. In a previous work, we have demonstrated that Fipronil interacts with lipid membranes using DPPCLangmuir films as the membrane model. In this work, we complement those experimental results with studies in DPPC largeunilamellar vesicles (LUVs). Moreover, we contrast these experimental results with molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) in mono-and bilayer systems.