Chemical, Cytotoxic, and Anti-Inflammatory Assessment of Honey Bee Venom from Apis mellifera intermissa

Abstract

The venom from Apis mellifera intermissa, the main honey bee prevailing in Morocco, has been scarcely studied, despite its known potential for pharmacological applications. In the present work, we investigated the composition, the anti-inflammatory activity, and the venom’s cytotoxic properties from fifteen honey bee venom (HBV) samples collected in three regions: northeast, central, and southern Morocco. The chemical assessment of honey bee venom was performed using LC-DAD/ESI/MSn, NIR spectroscopy and AAS spectroscopy. The antiproliferative effect was evaluated using human tumor cell lines, including breast adenocarcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and malignant melanoma. Likewise, we assessed the anti-inflammatory activity using the murine macrophage cell line. The study provides information on the honey bee venom subspecies’ main components, such as melittin, apamin, and phospholipase A2, with compositional variation depending on the region of collection. Contents of toxic elements such as cadmium, chromium, and plumb were detected at a concentration below 5 ppm, which can be regarded as safe for pharmaceutical use. The data presented contribute to the first study in HBV from Apis mellifera intermissa and highlight the remarkable antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory effects of HBV, suggesting it to be a candidate natural medicine to explore.

Bee Venom-Loaded Niosomes as Innovative Platforms for Cancer Treatment: Development and Therapeutical Efficacy and Safety Evaluation

“…The IC50 (concentration of the formulation required to inhibit 50% of nitric oxide production) was determined and calculated, as a demonstration of its antiinflammatory activity. The bee venom solution demonstrated an IC50 of 4.77 ng/mL, the lowest out of the compared formulations (p < 0.0001, R 2 0.9991, one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test), which is indicative of an extensive anti-inflammatory potential, and in line with previous results from the research team [78]. Additionally, this potential has been further confirmed by other past publications, where similar bee venom The bee venom solution demonstrated an IC 50 of 4.77 ng/mL, the lowest out of the compared formulations (p < 0.0001, R 2 0.9991, one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test), which is indicative of an extensive anti-inflammatory potential, and in line with previous results from the research team [78].…”

“…The bee venom solution demonstrated an IC50 of 4.77 ng/mL, the lowest out of the compared formulations (p < 0.0001, R 2 0.9991, one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test), which is indicative of an extensive anti-inflammatory potential, and in line with previous results from the research team [78]. Additionally, this potential has been further confirmed by other past publications, where similar bee venom The bee venom solution demonstrated an IC 50 of 4.77 ng/mL, the lowest out of the compared formulations (p < 0.0001, R 2 0.9991, one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test), which is indicative of an extensive anti-inflammatory potential, and in line with previous results from the research team [78]. Additionally, this potential has been further confirmed by other past publications, where similar bee venom concentrations depicted similar anti-inflammatory properties, with its main constituent, melittin, being responsible for the majority of such effects [79][80][81].…”

Evaluation of Antioxidant and Anticancer Activity of Mono- and Polyfloral Moroccan Bee Pollen by Characterizing Phenolic and Volatile Compounds

“…This great variety of natural products has been intensively researched and employed in different industries for various purposes [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. For example, propolis and bee venom are the subjects of important research in the field of pharmacy due to their strong biological activities [ 5 , 6 ], while honey, bee pollen, and bee bread are considered important products as functional foods due to their nutritional values and remarkable biological activities [ 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”

Apis mellifera Venom Inhibits Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens in vitro

“…Variations in the antibacterial and antifungal potency of AmBV between the tested bacterial and fungal strains could be attributed to the nature of each microbial strain or the mechanism by which AmBV inhibits the growth of each microbial strain. AmBV contains a wide range of bioactive molecules that could exploit different strategies to inhibit each microbial strain 37,38 . Similarly, melittin which is one of the major components of AmBV is more active against grampositive bacteria than gram-negative ones 39 .…”