Hormonal Regulation of Response to Oxidative Stress in Insects—An Update

Abstract

Insects, like other organisms, must deal with a wide variety of potentially challenging environmental factors during the course of their life. An important example of such a challenge is the phenomenon of oxidative stress. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the role of adipokinetic hormones (AKH) as principal stress responsive hormones in insects involved in activation of anti-oxidative stress response pathways. Emphasis is placed on an analysis of oxidative stress experimentally induced by various stressors and monitored by suitable biomarkers, and on detailed characterization of AKH’s role in the anti-stress reactions. These reactions are characterized by a significant increase of AKH levels in the insect body, and by effective reversal of the markers—disturbed by the stressors—after co-application of the stressor with AKH. A plausible mechanism of AKH action in the anti-oxidative stress response is discussed as well: this probably involves simultaneous employment of both protein kinase C and cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate pathways in the presence of extra and intra-cellular Ca2+ stores, with the possible involvement of the FoxO transcription factors. The role of other insect hormones in the anti-oxidative defense reactions is also discussed.

The impact of FOXO on dopamine and octopamine metabolism in Drosophila under normal and heat stress conditions

“…Kodrík et al (2015) suggest that FOXO confers oxidative-stress resistance via the transcriptional upregulation of genes encoding anti-oxidative enzymes. Our study suggests that FOXO also influences stress resistance via JH signalling and by regulating DA levels, which affect resistance to heat and nutritional stresses (Gruntenko et al, 2004).…”

Effect of natural toxins and adipokinetic hormones on the activity of digestive enzymes in the midgut of the cockroach Periplaneta americana

“…However, AKHs are pleiotropic in nature and are involved in many metabolic activities including various aspects of the defense and antistress responses (Gäde et al, 1997;Kodrík, 2008). Thus, AKHs enhance food intake and digestive processes in the insect gut (Bil, Broeckx, Landuyt, & Huybrechts, 2014;Bodláková, Beňová, & Kodrík, 2018;Kodrík, Vinokurov, Tomčala, & Socha, 2012), stimulate general locomotion (Socha, Kodrík, & Zemek, 1999), participate in the activation of antioxidant mechanisms (Kodrík, Bednářová, Zemanová, & Krishnan, 2015;Kodrík, Krishnan, & Habuštová, 2007), and interact with the cellular and humoral immune systems (Goldsworthy, Opoku-Ware, & Mullen, 2002).…”

Geomagnetic field absence reduces adult body weight of a migratory insect by disrupting feeding behavior and appetite regulation

“…AKH is an insect analog of the human hormone glucagon (Gáliková et al, 2017). The AKH/AKHR signaling plays crucial roles in energy mobilization (Galikova et al, 2015), antioxidative stress reactions (Kodrik et al, 2015), anti-obesity, and appetite regulation (Gáliková et al, 2017). Interestingly, our results indicated that AKH/AKHR signaling changed in response to changes in the GMF intensity in 5th instar N. lugens nymphs.…”

“…Additionally, recent computational work suggests that [FAD˙−-HO 2˙] or [FADH˙-O 2˙− ] can be alternative radical pairs at the origin of magnetoreception in Crys (Mondal and Huix-Rotllant, 2019), and ROS levels have also been shown to be sensitive to the changes in magnetic field intensity (Sherrard et al, 2018;Van Huizen et al, 2019). Moreover, it is well documented that ROS are critical in the regulation of energy metabolism and food intake due to their versatile roles in mediating the expression of vertebrate NPY (homolog of invertebrate NPF), glucose levels (Drougard et al, 2015) as well as the AKH/AKHR pathway (Kodrik et al, 2015). Therefore, another pathway that could explain GMF-involved appetite regulation is likely to be affected by ROS.…”