Agricultural Research Centre, Department of Bee Research, Plant Protection Research Institute, Giza 12627, Egypt.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom 32512, Egypt.
Toxins (Basel). 2021 Mar 12;13(3):206. doi: 10.3390/toxins13030206.
Wasps, members of the order Hymenoptera, are distributed in different parts of the world, including Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and Argentina. The lifestyles of the wasps are solitary and social. Social wasps use venom as a defensive measure to protect their colonies, whereas solitary wasps use their venom to capture prey. Chemically, wasp venom possesses a wide variety of enzymes, proteins, peptides, volatile compounds, and bioactive constituents, which include phospholipase A2, antigen 5, mastoparan, and decoralin. The bioactive constituents have anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the limited quantities of wasp venom and the scarcity of advanced strategies for the synthesis of wasp venom's bioactive compounds remain a challenge facing the effective usage of wasp venom. Solid-phase peptide synthesis is currently used to prepare wasp venom peptides and their analogs such as mastoparan, anoplin, decoralin, polybia-CP, and polydim-I. The goal of the current review is to highlight the medicinal value of the wasp venom compounds, as well as limitations and possibilities. Wasp venom could be a potential and novel natural source to develop innovative pharmaceuticals and new agents for drug discovery.
黄蜂，膜翅目昆虫，分布于世界各地，包括巴西、泰国、日本、韩国和阿根廷。黄蜂的生活方式有独居和群居两种。群居黄蜂使用毒液作为防御措施来保护它们的巢穴，而独居黄蜂则使用毒液来捕获猎物。从化学角度来看，黄蜂毒液含有多种酶、蛋白质、肽、挥发性化合物和生物活性成分，包括磷脂酶 A2、抗原 5、蜂毒素和装饰蛋白。这些生物活性成分具有抗癌、抗菌和抗炎作用。然而，黄蜂毒液的有限数量以及合成黄蜂毒液生物活性化合物的先进策略的缺乏，仍然是有效利用黄蜂毒液所面临的挑战。固相肽合成目前用于制备黄蜂毒液肽及其类似物，如蜂毒素、anoplin、decoralin、polybia-CP 和 polydim-I。本综述的目的是强调黄蜂毒液化合物的药用价值，以及其局限性和可能性。黄蜂毒液可能是一种有潜力的新型天然资源，可以开发创新药物和新的药物发现试剂。
