BEE VENOM FOR FUNGAL INFECTIONS
What Is A Fungal Infection?
Fungal infections are quite common in humans and they occur when the invading fungus, hits a specific part of the body which, is too strong for the natural immune system to handle. But some types of fungi are not harmful to a human body and are a part of it. Apart from humans, fungi can also live in plants, water, soil, and even air.
As said above, there are two different types of fungi, the harmful fungi, and the helpful fungi. When our body is hit by harmful fungi, it gets difficult to get rid of it, as it can easily survive and cause some sort of infection. The most common types of infections are a yeast infection, ringworm, jock itch and athlete’s foot.
What Are The Symptoms Of Fungal Infection?
Symptoms vary from one type of fungal infection to another, but the common signs are:
Fungal infections are quite common in humans, though they are not life-threatening at all, but need to be diagnosed correctly and treated as soon as possible.
Any person, regardless of his age or gender, having a weak immune system, can become a victim of fungal invasion. In the same manner, if a person is consuming strong antibiotics for a long time then he can also become prone to a fungal infection.
How Can Fungal Infections Be Treated?
There are several over the counter anti-fungal medicines available, but their heavy dosage and continuous usage can lead to different side effects like abdominal pain, weakness, loss of appetite, etc. Researchers are now focusing on testing different analyses that can control fungal infection and also protect the healthy cells from getting damaged. Bee venom is one of the favorite options, as it carries several anti-fungal components and has no adverse effects.
Antifungal Effects of Bee Venom Components on Trichophyton rubrum: A Novel Approach of Bee Venom Study for Possible Emerging Antifungal Agent
Introduction
BV (bee venom) obtained from Apis mellifera, has been used for a long time as an anti-inflammatory agent and a pain killer – it is also effective for suppressing symptoms of various chronic diseases. Recent clinical studies conducted, related to bee venom, show that it also has anti tumorous, radioprotective, antinociceptive, antibiotic and antimutagenic properties. To examine its unique mechanism, extensive research has been done to explore the constituents of bee venom that act parallel to each other and deliver combined effects.
Various pathways have been determined that include: translocation of NFκB (nuclear factor kappa B) and inhibition of toll-like receptors and activator protein1 signaling mechanism. There are two main constituents of bee venom: phospholipase A2 and melittin and both of these play a vital role in triggering an allergic reaction or irritation due to the sting of a honey bee.
Melittin is a 26amino acid polypeptide, which has strong anti-bacterial effects. In a recent clinical study, it was found that perfluorocarbon nanoparticles loaded with melittin could deliver heavy amounts of melittin intravenously that could target and kill the tumor responsible cells.
Bee venom is present in several products like nutrient providing gels, moisturizers, anti blemishes, and anti-acne sprays. BBM (bee venom based mist) has been used to control symptoms of fungal infection. It can be said that the anti-fungal effects of bee venom have not yet been explored to a satisfactory extent, while its anti-inflammatory effects have been analyzed thoroughly in various clinical studies.
There are some articles present that report antifungal uses of bee venom, which include species of Trichophyton and Candidal origin species. Antifungal activity of bee venom and sweet bee venom against 10 clinical isolates of the Candidal Albicans, which were cultured directly from vagina and blood demonstrated antifungal activity, which was determined through the killing curve assay, broth microdilution assay, and the disk diffusion assay.
Antifungal properties of bee venom against the T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum displayed stronger effects when compared to the effects of fluconazole. But still, the basic mechanisms of the principal components of bee venom that generate the anti-fungal effects need to be studied intensively.
In this clinical study, melittin and apamin, which are known for their anti-inflammatory effects, were investigated in their raw form and a mist based product, separately on the colonies of T. rubrum to determine their anti-fungal effects.
Method
Colonies of Apis mellifera were maintained carefully at the National Academy of Agriculture Science, Korea. Bee venom was gathered with the help of a collecting device from Chung Jin Biotech Co. Korea. The main aim was to force the bees to sting the glass plate and that was achieved through a high electric current directed towards the beehive. Venom was allowed to dry and later scraped off and gathered in one place. Bee venom was then diluted in sterile water, it was made sure that the water is cold enough, and then centrifuged at 10,000g for nearly 5 minutes at a temperature of 4 degrees centigrade. This process was carried out to remove any sort of residue from the supernatant.
After this process, the bee venom was lyophilized with a freeze dryer and then refrigerated again at 4 degrees centigrade. Bee venom used in this clinical study was authenticated with the size exclusion gel chromatography performed by dissolving it in 0.02M phosphate buffer along with 0.25M NaCl having a pH of 7.2. Other components including apamin and melittin were obtained from Sigma, USA and BBM and Dongsung Pharmaceuticals, Korea.
The antifungal mechanism was determined by examining the area changes made in each group that was the understudy for 14 days – at an interval of two. High-resolution digital photographs were captured daily through Canon EOS 750D for 2 weeks. It was made sure that the shooting background, position, and lighting were the same throughout the experiment. Image processing was done later to convert the area into numerical values and carry out analysis in Java, which was recalculated into proper ratios to estimate kinetic interval changes made in the areas of the under observation colonies.
Results
Antifungal values of different components were treated against the T. rubrum. PDACC plates were distributed and a spore suspension was installed on each side of the plate. The left side was for the control group and the right side was for the experimental group. It was observed that the experimental groups treated with raw bee venom had a slow growth difference when compared with that of the other group (control group) at 10mg/100µl and 40mg/100µL concentrations. A noticeable difference in the growth rate of the BBM treated groups between experimental groups at concentrations of 200µl and 300µl was observed during the gross inspection.
Discussion
The main objective of this clinical study was to assess the mechanism of bee venom components that stop the manifestation of a fungal pathogen, T. rubrum. In this clinical study, antifungal effects were compared between the control groups and experimental groups at specific time intervals, only bee venom in its raw form and mist based product displayed statistically significant values.
Elaborating further, the time point representing the anti-fungal effect by RBV was dose-dependent as 40mg/100µl (p=0.000) and 10mg/100µl (p=0.026) concentrated specimens showed a statistically substantial area difference when compared to the 0.1mg/100µl (p=0.084). According to these findings, it can be inferred that raw honeybee venom impressively produced fungicidal properties.
Antifungal effects of bee venom were weakened after 5 days, so it is assumed that RBV remains effective for 5 days. Prominent difference based on time intervals was exhibited through the graphical values. Anti-fungal effects were not observed in colonies treated with apamin or melittin. Analysis conducted between control groups and experimental groups did not represent any sort of statistical difference related to the growth of fungi on any concentration levels. The same results were displayed in colonies that were treated with apamin. It is well known that melittin inhibits vascular muscle cell proliferation and platelet based growth factors by subduing the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and NFκB activation. While the downward reaction prevents transcription of the inflammatory cytokine that exerts several protective effects induced from melittin.
ClosingThis clinical study presented antifungal effects possessed by components of BV along with a BV based beauty product, but further experiments are required that have a large sample base and multiple fungal species and different components f BV. This will help in understanding the underlying mechanism and molecular interaction of different BV components.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839892/
Antifungal Activity of Bee Venom and Sweet Bee Venom against Clinically Isolated Candida albicans
Introduction
Yeasts can be termed as microorganisms that are commonly found everywhere. They are abundantly present in dark and moist areas like the mouth, intestinal system, etc. Candida albicans, dimorphic yeast, is the most common pathogen found in humans. C. Albicans is prevalent in mucosal and superficial infection and chronic septicaemic mycosis in debilitated patients. This type of infection is the fourth most important reason behind the occurrence of nosocomial infection.
In the past few years, candidal infections have gone up due to increasing C. Albicans. For some patients, disseminated candidiasis can turn into a life-threatening disease. This type of function mostly results in infections like thrush and vaginitis. Amphotericin B is normally prescribed to treat the fungal infection while azoles are used in different clinical situations. But the main issue is that patients, using these anti-fungal medicines, experience symptoms of toxicity and develop resistance against these drugs. To overcome these problems, natural therapeutic measures are required.
This clinical study was conducted to examine the anti-fungal properties of SBV and BV against C. Albicans isolated obtained from the vagina and blood samples.
Method
SBV and BV were created at the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute, Korea. Lyophilized whole SBV and BV were mixed in distilled water. Different concentrations of this mixture were used. For examining antifungal traits of SBV and BV, C. Albicans was used a standard strain. Fungal cells were then cultured on a sabouraud dextrose agar plates and at the end placed in an incubator for 2 days at 35 degrees centigrade. Amphotericin B and fluconazole were mixed with dimethyl sulfoxide 2% as stock solution and then subjected to dilution.
Disk diffusion was performed with the Mueller Hinton agar glucose methylene blue. The inoculum was manufactured through 24hour plate cultures of C. Albicans on the SDA. It was later swabbed in three different directions on an MH-GMB agar plate. Amphotericin B and fluconazole were used as positive controls. Kinetics of antifungal activities of SBV and BV, against C. Albicans, was examined by killing curve assays. Once the culture was finalized, it was spread on the SDA agar plate and then CFUs were calculated after incubating them for 24hours at 35 degrees centigrade.
ResultsAntifungal properties of SBV and BV against 10 C. Albicans isolates and C. Albicans, as the standard strain was evaluated through a disk diffusion method carried out with the MH-GMB medium. Results obtained showed that the diameter of inhibition zones for C. Albicans vaginal isolates and C. Albicans blood isolates were 10mm to 12mm and 9mm to 12mm, respectively, these readings were for bee venom, while 12mm to 19mm and 12mm to 18mm, were recorded, respectively for SBV.
The diameter of the inhibition zone for the SBV and BV for C. Albicans standard strain had a reading of 15mm and 11mm, respectively. In vaginal isolates and blood isolates, diameters of inhibition zones for SBV and BV did not show any significant difference (P>0.05). But the inhibition zone diameter of SBV when compared with BV in the clinical isolates showed a significant difference (P<0.05)
FinalSBV and BV demonstrated antifungal activities against the clinical isolates of C. Albicans. Similar anti-fungal behavior of SBV and BV was observed on the disk diffusion assay.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887751/
Conclusion
Both of the clinical trials show that bee venom has anti-fungal properties that work efficiently to decrease symptoms of fungi infection in humans. There were no side effects observed in any of the clinical experiments. But more clinical studies need to be executed that will help in establishing a proper dose and pattern for using BV in subjects of fungal infection.
Sources
Antifungal Effects of Bee Venom Components on Trichophyton rubrum: A Novel Approach of Bee Venom Study for Possible Emerging Antifungal Agent
Antifungal Activity of Bee Venom and Sweet Bee Venom against Clinically Isolated Candida albicans
Fungal infections are quite common in humans and they occur when the invading fungus, hits a specific part of the body which, is too strong for the natural immune system to handle. But some types of fungi are not harmful to a human body and are a part of it. Apart from humans, fungi can also live in plants, water, soil, and even air.
As said above, there are two different types of fungi, the harmful fungi, and the helpful fungi. When our body is hit by harmful fungi, it gets difficult to get rid of it, as it can easily survive and cause some sort of infection. The most common types of infections are a yeast infection, ringworm, jock itch and athlete’s foot.
What Are The Symptoms Of Fungal Infection?
Symptoms vary from one type of fungal infection to another, but the common signs are:
- Persistent itching on the infected area of skin
- Changes in the appearance of skin
- Cracking or peeling of skin
- Redness and swelling of the skin
Fungal infections are quite common in humans, though they are not life-threatening at all, but need to be diagnosed correctly and treated as soon as possible.
Any person, regardless of his age or gender, having a weak immune system, can become a victim of fungal invasion. In the same manner, if a person is consuming strong antibiotics for a long time then he can also become prone to a fungal infection.
How Can Fungal Infections Be Treated?
There are several over the counter anti-fungal medicines available, but their heavy dosage and continuous usage can lead to different side effects like abdominal pain, weakness, loss of appetite, etc. Researchers are now focusing on testing different analyses that can control fungal infection and also protect the healthy cells from getting damaged. Bee venom is one of the favorite options, as it carries several anti-fungal components and has no adverse effects.
Antifungal Effects of Bee Venom Components on Trichophyton rubrum: A Novel Approach of Bee Venom Study for Possible Emerging Antifungal Agent
Introduction
BV (bee venom) obtained from Apis mellifera, has been used for a long time as an anti-inflammatory agent and a pain killer – it is also effective for suppressing symptoms of various chronic diseases. Recent clinical studies conducted, related to bee venom, show that it also has anti tumorous, radioprotective, antinociceptive, antibiotic and antimutagenic properties. To examine its unique mechanism, extensive research has been done to explore the constituents of bee venom that act parallel to each other and deliver combined effects.
Various pathways have been determined that include: translocation of NFκB (nuclear factor kappa B) and inhibition of toll-like receptors and activator protein1 signaling mechanism. There are two main constituents of bee venom: phospholipase A2 and melittin and both of these play a vital role in triggering an allergic reaction or irritation due to the sting of a honey bee.
Melittin is a 26amino acid polypeptide, which has strong anti-bacterial effects. In a recent clinical study, it was found that perfluorocarbon nanoparticles loaded with melittin could deliver heavy amounts of melittin intravenously that could target and kill the tumor responsible cells.
Bee venom is present in several products like nutrient providing gels, moisturizers, anti blemishes, and anti-acne sprays. BBM (bee venom based mist) has been used to control symptoms of fungal infection. It can be said that the anti-fungal effects of bee venom have not yet been explored to a satisfactory extent, while its anti-inflammatory effects have been analyzed thoroughly in various clinical studies.
There are some articles present that report antifungal uses of bee venom, which include species of Trichophyton and Candidal origin species. Antifungal activity of bee venom and sweet bee venom against 10 clinical isolates of the Candidal Albicans, which were cultured directly from vagina and blood demonstrated antifungal activity, which was determined through the killing curve assay, broth microdilution assay, and the disk diffusion assay.
Antifungal properties of bee venom against the T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum displayed stronger effects when compared to the effects of fluconazole. But still, the basic mechanisms of the principal components of bee venom that generate the anti-fungal effects need to be studied intensively.
In this clinical study, melittin and apamin, which are known for their anti-inflammatory effects, were investigated in their raw form and a mist based product, separately on the colonies of T. rubrum to determine their anti-fungal effects.
Method
Colonies of Apis mellifera were maintained carefully at the National Academy of Agriculture Science, Korea. Bee venom was gathered with the help of a collecting device from Chung Jin Biotech Co. Korea. The main aim was to force the bees to sting the glass plate and that was achieved through a high electric current directed towards the beehive. Venom was allowed to dry and later scraped off and gathered in one place. Bee venom was then diluted in sterile water, it was made sure that the water is cold enough, and then centrifuged at 10,000g for nearly 5 minutes at a temperature of 4 degrees centigrade. This process was carried out to remove any sort of residue from the supernatant.
After this process, the bee venom was lyophilized with a freeze dryer and then refrigerated again at 4 degrees centigrade. Bee venom used in this clinical study was authenticated with the size exclusion gel chromatography performed by dissolving it in 0.02M phosphate buffer along with 0.25M NaCl having a pH of 7.2. Other components including apamin and melittin were obtained from Sigma, USA and BBM and Dongsung Pharmaceuticals, Korea.
The antifungal mechanism was determined by examining the area changes made in each group that was the understudy for 14 days – at an interval of two. High-resolution digital photographs were captured daily through Canon EOS 750D for 2 weeks. It was made sure that the shooting background, position, and lighting were the same throughout the experiment. Image processing was done later to convert the area into numerical values and carry out analysis in Java, which was recalculated into proper ratios to estimate kinetic interval changes made in the areas of the under observation colonies.
Results
Antifungal values of different components were treated against the T. rubrum. PDACC plates were distributed and a spore suspension was installed on each side of the plate. The left side was for the control group and the right side was for the experimental group. It was observed that the experimental groups treated with raw bee venom had a slow growth difference when compared with that of the other group (control group) at 10mg/100µl and 40mg/100µL concentrations. A noticeable difference in the growth rate of the BBM treated groups between experimental groups at concentrations of 200µl and 300µl was observed during the gross inspection.
Discussion
The main objective of this clinical study was to assess the mechanism of bee venom components that stop the manifestation of a fungal pathogen, T. rubrum. In this clinical study, antifungal effects were compared between the control groups and experimental groups at specific time intervals, only bee venom in its raw form and mist based product displayed statistically significant values.
Elaborating further, the time point representing the anti-fungal effect by RBV was dose-dependent as 40mg/100µl (p=0.000) and 10mg/100µl (p=0.026) concentrated specimens showed a statistically substantial area difference when compared to the 0.1mg/100µl (p=0.084). According to these findings, it can be inferred that raw honeybee venom impressively produced fungicidal properties.
Antifungal effects of bee venom were weakened after 5 days, so it is assumed that RBV remains effective for 5 days. Prominent difference based on time intervals was exhibited through the graphical values. Anti-fungal effects were not observed in colonies treated with apamin or melittin. Analysis conducted between control groups and experimental groups did not represent any sort of statistical difference related to the growth of fungi on any concentration levels. The same results were displayed in colonies that were treated with apamin. It is well known that melittin inhibits vascular muscle cell proliferation and platelet based growth factors by subduing the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and NFκB activation. While the downward reaction prevents transcription of the inflammatory cytokine that exerts several protective effects induced from melittin.
ClosingThis clinical study presented antifungal effects possessed by components of BV along with a BV based beauty product, but further experiments are required that have a large sample base and multiple fungal species and different components f BV. This will help in understanding the underlying mechanism and molecular interaction of different BV components.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839892/
Antifungal Activity of Bee Venom and Sweet Bee Venom against Clinically Isolated Candida albicans
Introduction
Yeasts can be termed as microorganisms that are commonly found everywhere. They are abundantly present in dark and moist areas like the mouth, intestinal system, etc. Candida albicans, dimorphic yeast, is the most common pathogen found in humans. C. Albicans is prevalent in mucosal and superficial infection and chronic septicaemic mycosis in debilitated patients. This type of infection is the fourth most important reason behind the occurrence of nosocomial infection.
In the past few years, candidal infections have gone up due to increasing C. Albicans. For some patients, disseminated candidiasis can turn into a life-threatening disease. This type of function mostly results in infections like thrush and vaginitis. Amphotericin B is normally prescribed to treat the fungal infection while azoles are used in different clinical situations. But the main issue is that patients, using these anti-fungal medicines, experience symptoms of toxicity and develop resistance against these drugs. To overcome these problems, natural therapeutic measures are required.
This clinical study was conducted to examine the anti-fungal properties of SBV and BV against C. Albicans isolated obtained from the vagina and blood samples.
Method
SBV and BV were created at the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute, Korea. Lyophilized whole SBV and BV were mixed in distilled water. Different concentrations of this mixture were used. For examining antifungal traits of SBV and BV, C. Albicans was used a standard strain. Fungal cells were then cultured on a sabouraud dextrose agar plates and at the end placed in an incubator for 2 days at 35 degrees centigrade. Amphotericin B and fluconazole were mixed with dimethyl sulfoxide 2% as stock solution and then subjected to dilution.
Disk diffusion was performed with the Mueller Hinton agar glucose methylene blue. The inoculum was manufactured through 24hour plate cultures of C. Albicans on the SDA. It was later swabbed in three different directions on an MH-GMB agar plate. Amphotericin B and fluconazole were used as positive controls. Kinetics of antifungal activities of SBV and BV, against C. Albicans, was examined by killing curve assays. Once the culture was finalized, it was spread on the SDA agar plate and then CFUs were calculated after incubating them for 24hours at 35 degrees centigrade.
ResultsAntifungal properties of SBV and BV against 10 C. Albicans isolates and C. Albicans, as the standard strain was evaluated through a disk diffusion method carried out with the MH-GMB medium. Results obtained showed that the diameter of inhibition zones for C. Albicans vaginal isolates and C. Albicans blood isolates were 10mm to 12mm and 9mm to 12mm, respectively, these readings were for bee venom, while 12mm to 19mm and 12mm to 18mm, were recorded, respectively for SBV.
The diameter of the inhibition zone for the SBV and BV for C. Albicans standard strain had a reading of 15mm and 11mm, respectively. In vaginal isolates and blood isolates, diameters of inhibition zones for SBV and BV did not show any significant difference (P>0.05). But the inhibition zone diameter of SBV when compared with BV in the clinical isolates showed a significant difference (P<0.05)
FinalSBV and BV demonstrated antifungal activities against the clinical isolates of C. Albicans. Similar anti-fungal behavior of SBV and BV was observed on the disk diffusion assay.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887751/
Conclusion
Both of the clinical trials show that bee venom has anti-fungal properties that work efficiently to decrease symptoms of fungi infection in humans. There were no side effects observed in any of the clinical experiments. But more clinical studies need to be executed that will help in establishing a proper dose and pattern for using BV in subjects of fungal infection.
Sources
Antifungal Effects of Bee Venom Components on Trichophyton rubrum: A Novel Approach of Bee Venom Study for Possible Emerging Antifungal Agent
Antifungal Activity of Bee Venom and Sweet Bee Venom against Clinically Isolated Candida albicans