Bee venom has been used in traditional medicine for centuries as an anti-inflammatory. Only its main component, melittin, has been the subject of extensive scientific research. However, with its powerful effect, the natural substance can also damage healthy cells when used. A team of researchers from Frankfurt am Main and Giessen has now discovered milder variants of melittin in evolutionarily older wild bee species that appear to be more usable for pharmacology.
When we hear about bees, in most cases only the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is mistakenly associated. Wild bees, on the other hand, are only slowly humming their way into our consciousness, despite making up by far the most species of the bee group and many plant species relying exclusively on wild bees as pollinators. . In a study published in the journal “Toxins”, researchers from the Hessian LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG) now show another facet of the importance of wild bees: in their venoms, hitherto little studied , they were able to detect more original variants of melittin, a 26 amino acid peptide and major component of bee venom.
Melittin from bee venom has long been known to have a strong effect in laboratory experiments. It is about a hundred times more effective than cortisone in inflammation. Melittin is also being researched as an active substance against microbes and cancer cells. Its disadvantage: with its intensive effect, healthy cells are also damaged, which makes its use significantly more difficult.
“The idea of our comparative analysis was that melittin only became so toxic during evolution and that evolutionarily older wild bees can produce more pristine variants of melittin in the venom that are pharmacologically easier to use,” reports co-author Dr. Björn. Dr. von Reumont from the Department of Biosciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, an expert on the evolution of venom and venom genes in Hymenoptera, among others. “In the study, we therefore compared different variants of melittin. Some of them are known to the bee, others we have just discovered thanks to our combined analysis of the molecules, proteins and genome of wild bee venom. »
The objective of this research was the different modes of action on inflammation and cancer. »
Teacher. Dr. Robert Fürst, Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology, Goethe University
His colleague, Dr. Pelin Erkoc-Erik, first author of the publication, explains: “We examined the effects of melittin peptides on cell damage and the release of messenger substances and inflammatory markers – in cancerous and non-cancer human cells. cancerous. One of the substances that caught the team’s attention was melittin from the violet carpenter bee, a species of wild bee. In laboratory tests, it showed a promising effect on breast cancer cells.
The researchers agree that the melittin peptides discovered in wild bee species indeed reveal new and less aggressive activities and thus promise potential for future pharmaceutical applications. With these melittin variants, it is not necessary to compensate for the high toxicity with inhibitory substances. The team now wants to deepen the findings with expertise from various research areas. For example, von Reumont, co-lead of the European Venom Network (COST Action EUVEN), is involved in a project that is conducting more detailed research into the evolution and use of venoms in bees and other invertebrates, including to treat cancer. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Giessen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP in Frankfurt, who are participating in the study, are also following the new findings. Linking fundamental research and applied research in a translational approach is the objective of the LOEWE Center TBG.