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Review
. 2023 Oct:10.2217/fvl-2023-0127.
doi: 10.2217/fvl-2023-0127. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Antiviral attributes of bee venom as a possible therapeutic approach against SARS-CoV-2 infection

Soumik Goswami  1 , Jayita Pal Chowdhury  2
Affiliations
Review

Antiviral attributes of bee venom as a possible therapeutic approach against SARS-CoV-2 infection

Soumik Goswami et al. Future Virol. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

The unprecedented scale of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has driven considerable investigation into novel antiviral treatments since effective vaccination strategies cannot completely eradicate the virus. Apitherapy describes the medicinal use of bee venom, which may be an effective treatment against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Bee venom contains chemicals that are antimicrobial and stimulate the immune system to counteract viral load. The present review focuses on the use of bee venom as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and reviews studies on the pharmacodynamics of bee venom.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; bee venom; cell lysis; inflammation; melittin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests disclosure The authors have no competing interests or relevant affiliations with any organization or entity with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Stinging apparatus and mechanism of stinging in honey bees.
(A) Stinging apparatus of a honey bee. (B) The process of stinging by a honey bee using the barbules of the sting apparatus. Reproduced from Pucca MB, Cerni FA, Oliveira IS et al. with permission from [44].
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Structure of melittin from four different species of honey bees based on the secondary structural analysis via self optimized prediction method from alignment.
The structural analyses of melittin showed a predominance of alpha-helices (red), followed by beta-turns (orange), random coils (green), and extended strands (blue). The scale bar represents the lengths of 10 amino acids. Adapted from Park D, Jung JW, Lee MO, et al. with permission from [32].
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. A summary of the hypothesis of this manuscript.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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