Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Study Looks at Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Arthritis Effects of Bee Venom

JNK Pathway is Involved in the Inhibition of Inflammatory Target Gene Expression and NF-kappaB Activation by Melittin
Journal of Inflammation, 2008, 5:7, 29 May 2008

Background: Bee venom therapy has been used to treat inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis in humans and in experimental animals. We previously found that bee venom and melittin (a major component of bee venom) have anti-inflammatory effect by reacting with the sulfhydryl group of p50 of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) and IkappaB kinases (IKKs). Since mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase family is implicated in the NF-kappaB activation and inflammatory reaction, we further investigated whether activation of MAP kinase may be also involved in the anti-inflammatory effect of melittin and bee venom…

Conclusion: These data show that melittin and bee venom prevent LPS and SNP-induced NO and PGE2 production via JNK pathway dependent inactivation of NF-kappaB, and suggest that inactivation of JNK pathways may also contribute to the anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritis effects of melittin and bee venom.

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