Eicosanoids mediate melanotic nodulation reactions to viral infection in larvae of the parasitic wasp, Pimpla turionellae

Nodulation is the quantitatively predominant insect cellular immune function activated in response to bacterial, fungal and some viral infections. We posed the hypothesis that parasitoid insects express melanotic nodulation reactions to viral challenge and that eicosanoids mediate these reactions. Treating fifth-instar larvae of the ichneumonid endoparasitoid Pimpla turionellae with Bovine Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (BHSV-1) induced nodulation reactions in a challenge dose-dependent manner. Experimental larvae treated with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin, the lipoxygenase inhibitor, esculetin, and the phospholipase A2 inhibitor, dexamethasone, resulted in severely impaired nodulation reactions to our standard BHSV-1 challenge dose. The immunoinhibitory influence of dexamethasone was reversed in larvae reared on culture medium amended with arachidonic acid, the fatty acid precursor of eicosanoid biosynthesis. Larvae that had been reared on media amended with indomethacin, esculetin, or dexamethasone were also compromised in their nodulation reactions to viral challenge. The influence of the orally administered pharmaceutical was expressed in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, wasp larvae reared in the presence of indomethacin and dexamethasone expressed significantly decreased levels of phenoloxidase activity in response to viral challenge. These findings draw attention to the idea that endoparasitoid insects express cellular immune reactions to viral challenge; they also support our hypothesis that eicosanoids mediate nodulation reactions to viral challenge in these highly specialized insects.