New bioactive peptides from the venom gland of a social hornet Vespa velutina

Yi-Chuan Meng; Xiang-Gui Mo; Tian-Tian He; Xin-Xin Wen; James-C Nieh; Xin-Wang Yang; Ken Tan

doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2021.06.002

New bioactive peptides from the venom gland of a social hornet Vespa velutina

Toxicon. 2021 Aug:199:94-100. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2021.06.002. Epub 2021 Jun 12.

Authors

Yi-Chuan Meng¹, Xiang-Gui Mo¹, Tian-Tian He², Xin-Xin Wen¹, James-C Nieh³, Xin-Wang Yang⁴, Ken Tan⁵

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² Department of Anatomy and Histology & Embryology, Faculty of Basic Medical Science, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, China.
³ Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
⁴ Department of Anatomy and Histology & Embryology, Faculty of Basic Medical Science, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, China. Electronic address: yangxinwang@kmmu.edu.cn.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650000, China. Electronic address: kentan@xtbg.ac.cn.

PMID: 34129853
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2021.06.002

Abstract

Bacterial resistance to drugs is a global problem requiring the urgent development of new antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are excellent candidates for the design of novel antibiotics to combat microbial resistance. In this research, we identified four new peptides (U-VVTX-Vp1a, U-VVTX-Vp1b, U-VVTX-Vp2a, and U-VVTX-Vp2b, respectively) from the venom of Vespa velutina, and tested their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and hemolytic effects. All four peptides showed scavenging ability against DPPH, ABTS⁺, and •OH free radicals. Of note, Vp1b strongly inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria at concentrations of 60 and 120 μM. Due to their low hemolytic activity, all four peptides could be utilized in the development of new antioxidants and as candidates for the design of novel antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; Antioxidative peptides; Venom gland; Vespa velutina.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Infective Agents* / pharmacology
Hemolysis
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Peptides / pharmacology
Wasp Venoms
Wasps*

Substances

Anti-Infective Agents
Peptides
Wasp Venoms