Toxicity study of the anti-hypertensive agent perindopril on the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin assessed by conidia germination speed parameter

Hypertension is an important vascular disease to the global public health, since it constitutes the principal cause of death from childhood to adulthood. In order to alleviate its symptoms, the treatment is accomplished by anti-hypertensive drugs, among them, is perindopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. The entomopathogenic filamentous fungus Metarhizium anisopliae is widely used for biological control and it has been promising in toxicity studies of substances assessed by conidia germination speed parameter. This study aimed to verify the effect of different concentrations of perindopril on the conidia germination speed of the model fungus M. anisopliae , for detecting a possible toxic effect of this medicament in another eukaryote. Conidia of M. anisopliae were incubated with perindopril in concentrations of 200 and 20 μg/ml at 28°C for 12 h, sampled at 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 h and analyzed by light microscopy. The frequency of dormant, embedded, bud and germinated conidia was counted. As a result, perindopril in concentrations of 200 and 20 μg/ml increased the germination speed of M. anisopliae conidia , when compared to the negative control (absence of perindopril). It indicates that these two concentrations of perindopril have no toxicity on M. anisopliae , considering the Bayesian analysis. Keywords : Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, vegetative development, model fungus, entomopathogen, Bayesian analysis. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(35), pp. 5452-5457+