Insecticides participate with a vital role in our lives especially in preventing the spread of human diseases via
controlling the dangerous pests. It is a challenge to identify alternatives to the ordinary insecticides with new
mode of action to be used for mosquitoes’ control in an environmentally sustainable manner. Using a facile twostep
procedure, three novel series of sulfonamide-incorporating quaternary ammonium iodides (3a-i, 4a-i and
5a-i) were synthesized and their chemical structures were successfully characterized. The uncharged sulfonamide
intermediates (2a-i) were constructed through simple amidation of the corresponding (hetero)aryl sulfonyl
chlorides then the cationic target molecules were formed by quaternizing the tertiary nitrogen with methyl,
ethyl, and allyl iodides. The larvicidal activities and biological effects of most synthesized compounds against
Culex pipiens L. were extensively investigated and they exhibited good and comparable activities to temephos.
Among these hybrids, 4a showed the most potent activity with LC50 = 26.71 ppm. Additionally, the developmental
durations of larval and pupal stages were significantly prolonged after treatment with all concentrations
of 4h. At high concentration (160 ppm) of 4a and 4b, no adults emerged due to the complete death of pupae, and
consequently zero growth index. Moreover, the results of the molecular docking demonstrated that the activities
of compounds correlate partially to their binding with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and it is not the sole
parameter for determining the activity. |
