Bee venom

Bee venom, administered in the form of actual bee stings, has been used to treat people with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other disease that have an autoimmune basis.48 78 This treatment is supposed to modulate the immune response and suppress the damage caused by the activation and attack of immune cells on specific tissues.30 There is little evidence, however, that bee sting therapy can produce beneficial effects in humans.78 Additional research is needed to determine whether these treatments can promote short- or long-term benefits in persons with various autoimmune diseases. 

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Protective and exploitive proteins Immunoglobulins Thrombin Eibrinogen Antifreeze proteins Snake and bee venom proteins Diphtheria toxin Rtcin... 

Recently, a variety of natural peptides that form transmembrane channels have been identified and characterized. Melittin (Figure 10.35) is a bee venom toxin peptide of 26 residues. The cecropins are peptides induced in Hyalophora cecropia (Figure 10.36) and other related silkworms when challenged by bacterial infections. These peptides are thought to form m-helical aggregates in mem-... 

Muller UR Bee venom allergy in beekeepers and 47 their family members. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol 2005 5 343-347. 

Jutel M, Pichler WJ, Skrbic D, Urwyler A, Dahinden C, Muller UR Bee venom immunotherapy results in decrease of lL-4 and lL-5 and increase of IFN-y secretion in specific allergen-stimulated T cell cultures. J Immunol 1995 154 4187-4194. 

Muller U, Helbling A, Bischof M Predictive value of venom-specific IgE, IgG and IgG subclass antibodies in patients on immunotherapy with honey bee venom. Allergy 1989 44 412-418. 

Bumble bee venom contains also a phospholipase A2 with partial identity to bee venom phospholipase Aj and a protease, but no melittin. Instead there are several small peptides called bombolitins [9]. There is limited cross-reactivity between honey bee and bumblebee venoms [2]. 

A number of allergens from both honey bee and vespid venoms have been cloned and expressed by either Escherichia coli or baculovirus-infected insect cells (table 1) phospholipase Aj [20], hyaluronidase [21], acid phosphatase [13] and Api m6 [14] from honey bee venom, as well as antigen 5 [22], phospholipase A and hyaluronidase [23] from vespid venom, and dipeptidylpeptidases from both bee and Vespula venoms [15, 16]. Their reactivity with human-specific IgE antibodies to the respective allergens has been documented [11-16, 22, 23] and their specificity is superior... 

Muller U, Fricker M, Wymann D, Blaser K, Crameri R Increased specificity of diagnostic tests with recombinant major bee venom allergen phosphoh-pase A2. Clin Exp Allergy 1997 27 915-920. 

Muller U, Soldatova L, Weber M Bee venom allergy comparison of purified natural and recombinant-synthetic venom allergens. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1998 101 33. 

Grunwald T, Bockisch B, Spillner E, Ring J, Brede-horst R, Ollert M Molecular cloning and expression and expression in insect cells of honey bee venom allergen acid phosphatase (Api m3). J Allergy Clin Immunol 2006 117 848-854. 

Kettner A, Hughes GJ, Frutiger S, Astori M> Roggero M, Spertini F, Corradin G Api m6 a new bee venom allergen. J Allergy Chn Immunol 2001 107 914-920. 

Muller UR, Jutel M, Reimers A, Zumkehr J, Huber C, Kriegel C, Steiner U, Haeberli G, Akdis M, Helbling A, Schnyder B, Blaser K, Akdis C Clinical and immunologic effects of H1 antihistamine preventive medication during honey bee venom immunotherapy. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2008 122 1001-1007. 

Weber, A., Schroder, H., Thalberg, K. and Marz, L. (1987) Specific interactions of IgE antibodies with a carbohydrate epitope of honey-bee venom phospholipase-A2. Allergy 42, 464-470. 

Fig. 6.15. (A) Structure of the PLA2 probe PENN/SATE. (B) Fluorescence spectra change of the PLA2 probe measured over time. The probe (1 pM) was added to a 3 mM solution of Triton XI00 micelles and incubated with bee venom PLA2. The excitation wavelength is at 440 nm. After 36 min the reaction was complete leading to a 30-fold increase in donor/acceptor ratio.

Berchtold E, Maibach R, Muller UR Reduction of side effects from rush-immunotherapy with honey bee venom by pretreatment with terfena-dine. Clin Exp Allergy 1992 22 59-65. 

Jutel M, Zak-Nejmark T, Wrzyyszcz M, Malolepszy J Histamine receptor expression on peripheral blood CD4 + lymphocytes is influenced by ultrarush bee venom immunotherapy. Allergy 1997 52(suppl37) 88. 

Bee venom Increase IL-10 production Increase Treg activity ... 

Despite the fact that a definite decrease in IgE antibody levels and IgE-mediated skin sensitivity normally requires several years of SIT, most patients are protected against bee stings already at an early stage of bee venom-SIT. The reason for this is that effector cells of allergic inflammation, such as mast cells, basophils and eosinophils. 

Philadelphia, Saunders, 1992, pp 13-37. Jutel M, Muller UM, Pricker M, Rihs S, Pichler W, Dahinden C Influence of bee venom immunotherapy on degranulation and leukotriene generation in human blood basophils. Clin Exp Allergy 1996 26 112-118. 

Wetterwald A, Skvaril F, Muller U, Blaser K Isotypic and idiotypic characterization of anti-bee venom phospholipase A2 antibodies. Arch Allergy Appl Immunol 1985 77 195-197. 

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