Sinha Barnali, Choudhury Yashmin
Department of Biotechnology, Assam University, Silchar, India.
Front Pharmacol. 2024 Feb 2;15:1345281. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1345281. eCollection 2024.
Cancer has been medicine's most formidable foe for long, and the rising incidence of the disease globally has made effective cancer therapy a significant challenge. Drug discovery is targeted at identifying efficacious compounds with minimal side effects and developments in nanotechnology and immunotherapy have shown promise in the fight against this complicated illness. Since ancient times, insects and insect-derived products have played a significant role in traditional medicine across several communities worldwide. The aim of this study was to inspect the traditional use of edible insects in various cultures and to explore their modern use in cancer therapy. Edible insects are sources of nutrients and a variety of beneficial substances with anticancer and immunomodulatory potential. Recently, insect derived bioactive-components have also been used as nanoparticles either in combination with chemotherapeutics or as a nano-cargo for the enhanced delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs due to their high biocompatibility, low bio-toxicity, and their antioxidant and anticancer effects. The crude extracts of different edible insects and their active components such as sericin, cecropin, solenopsin, melittin, antimicrobial peptides and fibroin produce anti-cancer and immunomodulatory effects by various mechanisms which have been discussed in this review.
长期以来，癌症一直是医学上最 formidable 的敌人，而全球该疾病发病率的上升使得有效的癌症治疗成为一项重大挑战。药物研发旨在识别副作用最小的有效化合物，纳米技术和免疫疗法的发展在对抗这种复杂疾病方面已显示出 promise。自古以来，昆虫及其衍生产品在世界各地多个社区的传统医学中发挥了重要作用。本研究的目的是考察可食用昆虫在各种文化中的传统用途，并探索它们在癌症治疗中的现代用途。可食用昆虫是营养物质和具有抗癌及免疫调节潜力的多种有益物质的来源。最近，昆虫衍生的生物活性成分也被用作纳米颗粒，要么与化疗药物联合使用，要么作为纳米载体以增强化疗药物的递送，这是由于它们具有高生物相容性、低生物毒性以及抗氧化和抗癌作用。不同可食用昆虫的粗提物及其活性成分，如丝胶蛋白、杀菌肽、火蚁素、蜂毒肽、抗菌肽和丝素蛋白，通过多种机制产生抗癌和免疫调节作用，本综述对此进行了讨论。
