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Apitoxin or bee venom is the venom produced by the honey bee. It is a cytotoxic and hemotoxic bitter colorless liquid containing proteins, which may produce local inflammation. It may have similarities to sea nettle toxin. [1]
Bee venom is a complex mixture of proteins and smaller molecules.
The main component is melittin, which amounts to 52% of venom peptides [2] One of the main allergens is phospholipase A2, which amounts to 12% and is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of phospholipids, causing degradation of cell membranes. [3] Adolapin [4] contributes 2–5% of the peptides. [5] [6] Further protein components include apamin (2%), a neurotoxin, hyaluronidase (2%), which dilates blood vessels, increasing their permeability and facilitating the spread of the venom, [3] mast cell degranulating peptide (2%), tertiapin, and secapin. [7] Small molecules in bee venom include histamine (0.1–1%), dopamine and noradrenaline. [8]
Mark Crislip, a practicing infectious disease specialist, examined the claims that bee venom can treat arthritis. He was unable to "find a clean, i.e., a non-TCPM based, randomized, placebo-controlled study of bee venom in humans for the treatment [of] arthritis." [9]
Apitoxins are under preliminary research for their potential biological effects, such as in cancer. [10]
A toxin is a naturally occurring organic poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919) and is derived from the word "toxic".
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved venom apparatus, such as fangs or a stinger, in a process called envenomation. Venom is often distinguished from poison, which is a toxin that is passively delivered by being ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin, and toxungen, which is actively transferred to the external surface of another animal via a physical delivery mechanism.
Hornets are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to 5.5 cm (2.2 in) in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by the relatively large top margin of the head. Worldwide, 22 species of Vespa are recognized. Most species only occur in the tropics of Asia, though the European hornet, is widely distributed throughout Europe, Russia, North America, and north-eastern Asia. Wasps native to North America in the genus Dolichovespula are commonly referred to as hornets, but are actually yellowjackets.
Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom. There has been no scientific or clinical evidence for the efficacy or safety of apitherapy treatments.
A stinger is a sharp organ found in various animals capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal.
Melittin is the main component and the major pain-producing substance of honeybee venom. Melittin is a basic peptide consisting of 26 amino acids.
Defensins are small cysteine-rich cationic proteins across cellular life, including vertebrate and invertebrate animals, plants, and fungi. They are host defense peptides, with members displaying either direct antimicrobial activity, immune signaling activities, or both. They are variously active against bacteria, fungi and many enveloped and nonenveloped viruses. They are typically 18-45 amino acids in length, with three or four highly conserved disulphide bonds.
The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, a former entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt published a number of works on the subject, and claimed to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.
A bee sting is the wound and pain caused by the stinger of a female bee puncturing skin. Bee stings differ from insect bites, with the venom of stinging insects having considerable chemical variation. The reaction of a person to a bee sting may vary according to the bee species. While bee stinger venom is slightly acidic and causes only mild pain in most people, allergic reactions may occur in people with allergies to venom components.
The Chinese red-headed centipede, also known as the Chinese red head, is a centipede from East Asia and Australasia. It averages 20 cm (8 in) in length and lives in damp environments.
Margaret J. "Margie" Profet is an American evolutionary biologist with no formal biology training who created a decade-long controversy when she published her findings on the role of Darwinian evolution in menstruation, allergies and morning sickness. She argued that these three processes had evolved to eliminate pathogens, carcinogens and other toxins from the body.
Kallikreins are a subgroup of serine proteases, enzymes capable of cleaving peptide bonds in proteins. In humans, plasma kallikrein has no known paralogue, while tissue kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) encode a family of fifteen closely related serine proteases. These genes are localised to chromosome 19q13, forming the largest contiguous cluster of proteases within the human genome. Kallikreins are responsible for the coordination of various physiological functions including blood pressure, semen liquefaction and skin desquamation.
Fel d 1 is a secretoglobin protein complex that, in cats, is encoded by the CH1 and CH2 genes.
Apamin is an 18 amino acid globular peptide neurotoxin found in apitoxin (bee venom). Dry bee venom consists of 2–3% of apamin. Apamin selectively blocks SK channels, a type of Ca2+-activated K+ channel expressed in the central nervous system. Toxicity is caused by only a few amino acids, in particular cysteine1, lysine4, arginine13, arginine14 and histidine18. These amino acids are involved in the binding of apamin to the Ca2+-activated K+ channel. Due to its specificity for SK channels, apamin is used as a drug in biomedical research to study the electrical properties of SK channels and their role in the afterhyperpolarizations occurring immediately following an action potential.
Philanthotoxins are components of the venom of the Egyptian solitary wasp Philanthus triangulum, commonly known as the European beewolf. Philanthotoxins are polyamine toxins, a group of toxins isolated from the venom of wasps and spiders which immediately but reversibly paralyze their prey. δ-philanthotoxin, also known as PhTX-433, is the most active philanthotoxin that can be refined from the venom. PhTX-433 functions by non-selectively blocking excitatory neurotransmitter ion channels, including nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs). Synthetic analogues, including PhTX-343 and PhTX-12, have been developed to improve selectivity. While the IC50 values of philanthotoxins varies between analogues and receptor subunit composition, the IC50 value of PhTX-433 at the iGluR AMPA receptor naturally expressed in locust leg muscle is 18 μM and the IC50 value at rat nAChRs is 1 μM.
Pompilidotoxins (PMTXs) are toxic substances that can only be found in the venom of several solitary wasps. This kind of wasp uses their venom to offensively capture prey and is relatively harmless to humans. This is in stark contrast to social insects that defend themselves and their colonies with their venom.
α-Neurotoxins are a group of neurotoxic peptides found in the venom of snakes in the families Elapidae and Hydrophiidae. They can cause paralysis, respiratory failure, and death. Members of the three-finger toxin protein family, they are antagonists of post-synaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the neuromuscular synapse that bind competitively and irreversibly, preventing synaptic acetylcholine (ACh) from opening the ion channel. Over 100 α-neurotoxins have been identified and sequenced.
Insects have long been used in medicine, both traditional and modern, sometimes with little evidence of their effectiveness.
Venomics is the large-scale study of proteins associated with venom. Venom is a toxic substance secreted by animals, which is typically injected either offensively or defensively into prey or aggressors, respectively.
U24-ctenitoxin-Pn1a is a neurotoxin that is naturally found in the venom of Latrodectus geometricus (L.geometricus). It reduces the inactivation of insect voltage-gated sodium channels. It is also thought to be a cysteine proteinase inhibitor.
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