Background: Aedes aegypti Linnaeus is a medically important vector because of its role in transmitting several arboviruses. Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP), an enzyme from the trehalose pathway, was the focus of this study, which aimed to model it, perform molecular docking and select potential ligands to evaluate their larvicidal and adulticidal activity on the mosquito.

Results: Because no TPP structure for A. aegypti was described, the modeling was done by homology, using the TPP from Mycobacterium tuberculosis Zopf as a template, with 31% similarity. Following virtual screening, a search for TPP-like molecules on PubChem resulted in 227 molecules, and phthalimide, N-(p-tolylsulfonyl) (PNT) was selected and tested in vivo. Larvicidal tests were conducted in 24-well plates, and adulticidal tests used sugar baits with several concentrations (5 to 100 ppm) of PNT. In larval tests, mortality ranged from 38% to 52% at 24 h and reached 92% at 100 ppm PNT after 72 h. Larval mortality progressively increased over 96 h, with estimated lethal concentration (LC₅₀ and LC₉₀) values after 48 h of 18 and 198 ppm respectively. In adulticidal tests, despite high bait uptake, acute ingestion of PNT did not cause mortality in adult mosquitoes.

Conclusion: PNT demonstrated larvicidal activity against A. aegypti, suggesting that mosquito TPP could be a target in the search for new-generation insecticides. © 2025 The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Keywords: in silico; larvicide; metabolism; trehalose.

© 2025 The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

背景： 埃及伊蚊（Aedes aegypti Linnaeus）因其在传播几种虫媒病毒方面的作用而成为重要的医学媒介。本研究旨在对糖原路径中的酶——六磷酸海藻糖磷酸酯酶 (TPP) 进行建模，并进行分子对接，选择潜在配体以评估其对蚊子幼虫和成虫的杀灭活性。

结果： 由于没有描述埃及伊蚊的 TPP 结构，因此通过同源建模完成该任务，使用结核分枝杆菌 Zopf 的 TPP 作为模板，相似度为31%。经过虚拟筛选，在 PubChem 上搜索类似 TPP 的分子得到227个候选分子，并选择 N-(对甲苯磺酰基)邻苯二甲酰亚胺 (PNT) 进行体内测试。幼虫杀灭试验在24孔板中进行，而成虫杀灭试验则使用不同浓度（5至100 ppm）的 PNT 糖饵。在幼虫杀灭试验中，在24小时后死亡率为38%到52%，72小时后在100 ppm PNT 下达到92%；96小时内，幼虫死亡率逐渐上升，估算出的致死浓度（LC₅₀ 和 LC₉₀）值分别为48小时后的18和198 ppm。在成虫杀灭试验中，尽管糖饵被大量摄取，急性摄入 PNT 并未导致成年蚊子死亡。

结论： PNT 对埃及伊蚊具有幼虫杀灭活性，表明蚊子的 TPP 可能是在寻找新一代杀虫剂时的一个目标。© 2025 The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

关键词： 计算机模拟；幼虫杀灭剂；代谢；海藻糖。