The Effects of Melittin and Apamin on Airborne Fungi-Induced Chemical Mediator and Extracellular Matrix Production from Nasal Polyp Fibroblasts

Abstract

Melittin and apamin are the main components of bee venom and they have been known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of melittin and apamin on airborne fungi-induced chemical mediator and extracellular matrix (ECM) production in nasal fibroblasts. Primary nasal fibroblasts were isolated from nasal polyps, which were collected during endoscopic sinus surgery. Nasal fibroblasts were treated with Alternaria and Aspergillus. The effects of melittin and apamin on the production of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 were determined with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. ECM mRNA and protein expressions were determined with the use of quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot. Alternaria-induced IL-6 and IL-8 production was significantly inhibited by apamin. However, melittin did not influence the production of IL-6 and IL-8 from nasal fibroblasts. Melittin or apamin significantly inhibited collagen type I, TIMP-1, and MMP-9 mRNA expression and protein production from nasal fibroblasts. Melittin and apamin inhibited Alternaria-induced phosphorylation of Smad 2/3 and p38 MAPK. Melittin and apamin can inhibit the fungi-induced production of chemical mediators and ECM from nasal fibroblasts. These results suggest the possible role of melittin and apamin in the treatment of fungi induced airway inflammatory diseases.

High Risk COVID-19: Potential Intervention at Multiple Points in the COVID-19 Disease Process Via Prophylactic Treatment with Azithromycin or Bee Derived Products

“…[48,49] In addition to azithromycin, melittin, an anti-inflammatory compound derived from bee venom, has been shown to reduce formation of the IL6/sIL-6R complex; and whole bee venom downregulates TNF alpha and IL-6. [50][51][52] While melittin has not been used as a standard prophylactic agent for patients with respiratory disease, bee venom is already utilized in some forms of acupuncture for treatment of inflammatory arthritides. [53] The anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10 downregulates inflammatory cytokines such as IL1 and TNF alpha.…”

An overview of the bioactive compounds, therapeutic properties and toxic effects of apitoxin

“…This compound is also cytotoxic against cancer cells among other mechanisms through the activation of apoptotic pathways (both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent) and PLA 2 pathways (Lee et al, 2018;Jin et al, 2018;Shin et al, 2017;Zhang and Chen, 2017;Wang et al, 2017). Indeed, the growth inhibitory potential and the capacity to suppress tumour metastasis of MLT has been observed in several types of cancer cells like liver, renal, prostate, breast, lung, bladder, gastric and leukemia, suggesting that it may be a potent agent to use in chemotherapy (Liu et al, 2016;Moreno and Giralt, 2015;Kong et al, 2016).…”

“…Several researchers studied health-related applications of Apamin (Table 1) as anti-inflammatory (Shin et al, 2017), antibacterial, antifungal, anti-fibrotic (Shin et al, 2017), anti-cancer (Ratcliffe et al, 2014), anti-atherosclerosis (Kim et al, 2015), anti-nociceptive and A. Pascoal, et al Food and Chemical Toxicology 134 (2019) 110864 cytotoxic against cancer cells (Son et al, 2007).…”

Antimicrobial Properties of Apis mellifera’s Bee Venom

“…The rise of antimicrobial drug resistance calls for a search of new candidates with novel mode of action. Natural products including bee venom (BV), one of many bee products which is rich in bioactive compounds, offer a diversity of activities against variety of diseases causes [3][4][5][6].…”