We used the same initial dose of 10 μg/mL as used for the contact treatment. The insects were fed with blood containing parasites (2 × 106T. cruzi Dm28c clone/mL of blood) (group FPC) or not (FP), and were placed over the physalin B treated papers (25–30 insects/176 cm2) during the whole experiment period. Parasites adhesion to the perimicrovillar membrane of the insect vector posterior midgut is an important stage for parasite development in the host. Therefore perimicrovillar membrane of the treated insects was dissected and prepared in saline buffer to count the number of

parasites adhered under an optic microscope. We used membranes of control (C) and physalin B treated orally groups (F). The parasites, T. cruzi epimastigotes, were washed three times in PBS, and then resuspended in fresh BHI to a concentration of 3.0 × 106 cells/mL. The parasite suspension (200 μL) was incubated with the perimicrovillar membrane Olaparib manufacturer of each insect group inside microtubes for 30 min at 25 °C. Then the midgut preparations Lumacaftor solubility dmso were spread onto glass slides and the number of attached parasites was counted under a microscope ( Nogueira et al., 2007). A hundred randomly chosen epithelial cells from 10 different sites of each midgut preparation were counted. For

each experimental group 10 insect midguts were used. The microbiota of the R. prolixus digestive tract was assessed by counting bacteria colony forming units (CFU) that grew in brain heart infusion agar (BHI agar). The kinetics of microbiota growth in infected and non-infected insects was investigated daily for 30 days after feeding. The results demonstrated a peak of bacteria concentration at 8 days after feeding and a significant difference between infected and non-infected insects ( Castro et al., 2012). Therefore the entire digestive tract was dissected under sterile conditions (without contact of the samples with the outside cuticle of the insect and inside a biological

safety flow cabinet) eight days after treatments and homogenized in 1 mL of sterile PBS. Samples were then immediately transferred to Thalidomide ice, diluted 10−5, 10−7 or 10−9 with PBS, and 20 μL aliquots were spread onto BHI agar plates, and then incubated overnight at 30 °C. After this the CFUs were counted. We analyzed the effects of physalin B in the anterior midgut nine days after feeding because in our recent research (Castro et al., 2012), the antibacterial activity is more intense in this condition. The TB assay was modified from Thomas et al., 1999 and Bexfield et al., 2004. Each anterior midgut dissected was placed in a tube with 200 μL of Milli-Q water, and then it was homogenized and centrifuged at 8000 g for 1 min at 4 °C. Aliquots of 70 μL from supernatant were transferred into tubes containing 630 μL of Milli-Q water. They were then sterilized in 0.22 mm sterile filters and frozen at −20 °C.