Pharmacological effects and mechanisms of bee venom and its main components: Recent progress and perspective

Peiying Shi; Shihui Xie; Jiali Yang; Yi Zhang; Shuo Han; Songkun Su; Hong Yao

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.1001553

Pharmacological effects and mechanisms of bee venom and its main components: Recent progress and perspective

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Sep 27:13:1001553. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1001553. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Peiying Shi^{1

2}, Shihui Xie¹, Jiali Yang¹, Yi Zhang¹, Shuo Han¹, Songkun Su¹, Hong Yao³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Resource and Bee Products, College of Animal Sciences (College of Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
² State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Natural Biotoxins, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, School of Pharmacy, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.

Abstract

Bee venom (BV), a type of defensive venom, has been confirmed to have favorable activities, such as anti-tumor, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-infectivity effects, etc. This study reviewed the recent progress on the pharmacological effects and mechanisms of BV and its main components against cancer, neurological disorders, inflammatory diseases, pain, microbial diseases, liver, kidney, lung and muscle injury, and other diseases in literature during the years 2018-2021. The related target proteins of BV and its main components against the diseases include Akt, mTOR, JNK, Wnt-5α, HIF-1α, NF-κB, JAK2, Nrf2, BDNF, Smad2/3, AMPK, and so on, which are referring to PI3K/Akt/mTOR, MAPK, Wnt/β-catenin, HIF-1α, NF-κB, JAK/STAT, Nrf2/HO-1, TrkB/CREB/BDNF, TGF-β/Smad2/3, and AMPK signaling pathways, etc. Further, with the reported targets, the potential effects and mechanisms on diseases were bioinformatically predicted via Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, disease ontology semantic and enrichment (DOSE) and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analyses. This review provides new insights into the therapeutic effects and mechanisms of BV and its main components on diseases.

Keywords: bee venom; bioinformatic analysis; effect mechanism; melittin; pharmacological effect; phospholipase A2.

Publication types

Review