Small-Molecule Agonists of Ae. aegypti Neuropeptide Y Receptor Block Mosquito Biting

Cell. 2019 Feb 7;176(4):687-701.e5.

Laura B Duvall ¹, Lavoisier Ramos-Espiritu², Kyrollos E Barsoum¹, J Fraser Glickman², Leslie B Vosshall³.

1. Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
2. High-Throughput Screening and Spectroscopy Resource Center, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
3. Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA; Kavli Neural Systems Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA. Electronic address: leslie.vosshall@rockefeller.edu.

Abstract

Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes bite humans to obtain blood to develop their eggs. Remarkably, their strong attraction to humans is suppressed for days after the blood meal by an unknown mechanism. We investigated a role for neuropeptide Y (NPY)-related signaling in long-term behavioral suppression and discovered that drugs targeting human NPY receptors modulate mosquito host-seeking. In a screen of all 49 predicted Ae. aegypti peptide receptors, we identified NPY-like receptor 7 (NPYLR7) as the sole target of these drugs. To obtain small-molecule agonists selective for NPYLR7, we performed a high-throughput cell-based assay of 265,211 compounds and isolated six highly selective NPYLR7 agonists that inhibit mosquito attraction to humans. NPYLR7 CRISPR-Cas9 null mutants are defective in behavioral suppression and resistant to these drugs. Finally, we show that these drugs can inhibit biting and blood-feeding on a live host, suggesting a novel approach to control infectious disease transmission by controlling mosquito behavior.

Presented by Laura Duvall