Heating of bee venom before injection enhances its anti-nociceptive property and reduces the local adverse side effects

Abstract

Bee venom (BV), composed of different proteins and enzymes, exhibits different biological activities. The major proteins of BV are melittin and phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Melittin is responsible for major pharmacological actions of BV, whereas PLA2 for the allergic and pain stimulation. BV has good anti-nociceptive activity along with its some local side effects (pain and inflammation). In this study, we tried to find a suitable condition for enhancing the anti-nociceptive property of BV and at the same time reducing its local adverse side effects. An ideal condition of temperature and heating time (120 °C and 20 min) was identified which showed lesser degradation of melittin but greater degradation of phospholipase A2 (PLA2). BV and heated BV (HBV) (at 120 °C and 20 min) were checked for the anti-nociceptive effect by mice formalin test. The injection of all BV solutions was done subcutaneously into the Zusanli (ST36) acupoint of mice. Injection of HBV markedly reduced the licking time of mice than that of BV solution. Mice injected with BV were found biting the site of injection for a long time after injection but such behavior was not found in HBV injection group. Both groups of BV solutions showed a similar minimum inhibitory concentration for the antibacterial activities. The results of antioxidant activity also revealed that heating did not affect the antioxidant property of BV. Thus heating BV under the assigned method enhanced the anti-nociceptive property and reduced the local adverse side effect without changing its biological activities.

Keywords:

• Bee venom
• anti-nociceptive
• melittin
• PLA2
• heat treatment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Clinical Trial Center of Wonkwang University, Gwangju Hospital, funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) (HI14C0665).