Extracellular loop structures in silkworm ABCC transporters determine their specificities for Cry toxins.

Cry toxins are insecticidal proteins used widely for pest control. They are lethal to a restricted range of insects via specific interactions with insect receptors such as the ABC transporter subfamily members C2 (ABCC2) and C3 (ABCC3). However, it is still unclear how these different receptors contribute to insect susceptibility to Cry1A toxins.

Construction of a simple evaluation system for the intestinal absorption of an orally administered medicine using Bombyx mori larvae.

Human intestinal absorption is estimated using a human colon carcinoma cell line (Caco-2) cells from human colorectal adenocarcinoma, intestinal perfusion, or a mammalian model. These current evaluation systems are limited in their ability to estimate human intestinal absorption. In addition, in vivo evaluation systems using laboratory animals such as mice and rats entail animal ethics problems, and it is difficult to screen compounds on a large scale at the drug discovery stage.