What does melittin do to the body?
Honeybee venom is an important component of the honeybee defense system. It is produced by the venom glands in the bee's abdominal cavity.
It has been proven that bee venom mainly contains enzymes, lipids, polypeptides, polysaccharides, biogenic amines, amino acids and other substances, among which polypeptides include active ingredients such as bee venom peptides, histamine peptides, and sedative peptides.
Melittin (Mel) is one of the main biologically active ingredients in bee venom, accounting for about 50% of the dry matter weight of bee venom.
Melittin has the advantages of high broad-spectrum antibacterial biological activity, easy degradation, and no residue. It has gradually become a candidate substance for potential original research drugs for antibacterial and antiviral drugs.
Due to the principle of melittin's ability to cross the membrane to lyse the biological membrane and its high lysis activity on eukaryotic cells, it can show biological activities such as bactericidal, antiviral, and anti-tumor.
Melittin-like peptides have targeted antiviral effects, which interfere with the binding of viruses to cell membrane surface receptors, hinder the fusion of viral envelopes and cell membranes, inhibit the expression of viral genomes, and prevent viruses from parasitizing in host cells to complete replication and reproduction.
