Omran Alia, Massouh Laila and Al-DaoudeAntonious
Faculty of Pharmacy, Damascus University, Syria
In this study, bee venom was collected from 12 Syrian beehives during June and July 2011 using electric shock method. Melittin, the major component of BV, was isolated and identified using RPHPLC C18 column and MALDI-TOF-MS analysis. The obtained melittin exhibited a potent antibacterial activity particularly against Gram-positive bacteria as its MIC was 12.5μg/ml for Listeria monocytogenes compared with 200μg/ml for Yersinia kristensenii (a Gram-negative bacterium) indicating that melittin has significant antibacterial effects. Additionally, melittin treatment was found to significantly accelerate wound contraction and re-epithelialisation as wound sizes decreased dramatically and healed within 5 days in all melittin treated rats compared with 8 days in the controls in a rat full-thickness excision wound model. These findings suggested that topical melittin treatment for skin defects should be very effective in preventing and reducing the wound and scar sizes. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the precise mechanism of epithelial cell proliferation induced by melittin treatment.
Keywords: Melittin, AMPs, Antimicrobial Effect, Wound Healing.