Percorrer por autor "El Mehdi, Iouraouine"
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- Chemical, cytotoxic, and anti-inflammatory assessment of honey bee venom from Apis mellifera intermissaPublication . El Mehdi, Iouraouine; Falcão, Soraia; Harandou, Mustapha; Boujraf, Saïd; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Anjos, Ofélia; Campos, Maria G.; Vilas-Boas, MiguelThe venom from Apis mellifera intermissa, the main honey bee prevailing in Morocco, has been scarcely studied, despite its known potential for pharmacological applications. In the present work, we investigated the composition, the anti-inflammatory activity, and the venom’s cytotoxic properties from fifteen honey bee venom (HBV) samples collected in three regions: northeast, central, and southern Morocco. The chemical assessment of honey bee venom was performed using LC-DAD/ESI/MSn, NIR spectroscopy and AAS spectroscopy. The antiproliferative effect was evaluated using human tumor cell lines, including breast adenocarcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and malignant melanoma. Likewise, we assessed the anti-inflammatory activity using the murine macrophage cell line. The study provides information on the honey bee venom subspecies’ main components, such as melittin, apamin, and phospholipase A2, with compositional variation depending on the region of collection. Contents of toxic elements such as cadmium, chromium, and plumb were detected at a concentration below 5 ppm, which can be regarded as safe for pharmaceutical use. The data presented contribute to the first study in HBV from Apis mellifera intermissa and highlight the remarkable antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory effects of HBV, suggesting it to be a candidate natural medicine to explore.
- A doubled-faced bee venom collector: a new contribution to improve bee venom collectionPublication . El Mehdi, Iouraouine; Mustapha, Harandou; Vilas-Boas, Miguel; Campos, Maria G.Collecting bee venom or apitoxin requires careful work with the highest degree of cleanliness. Furthermore, precautions at the time of collection in the apiary must be considered. Several kinds of bee venom collector exist in the market of beekeeping equipment [1,2]. In the apparatus used outside the hive, the collector panel is put on the entrance or on the bottom board of the hive. Other types are used inside the hive, on or instead of the frames. The aim of this study is to provide an improved device for collecting bee venom with required quality at several scales: 1-quality of the bee venom namely, specifically purity and physico-chemical characteristics, 2- yield of the collection, 3-stability of the beehive as well as the apiary, 4-reduce bee damage or the death of the excited bees per period of collection, 5- provide an affordable device for Moroccan beekeepers. The improvement affects several levels and sections: electronic control system part, stainless wire array, venom collection surface. As a result of the study we can conclude that it is possible to make a bee venom collector that is relatively cheap and, at the same time, suited to Moroccan conditions. The optimum frequency of bee venom collecting event is every 10 to 15 days and the optimum duration of bee venom collection in the beehive is 30 min to 60 min early in the morning. The experiment showed that the best method consists of placing the frame at one of the outermost opposite ends of the beehive. An average yield per period of collection (30 min to 60 min) and per beehive was from 30 to 35 mg of dry venom. Furthermore the quality was very promising. With the present apparatus bee venom is dried on clean conditions with the minimum contaminations and without secondary air current, reducing dead or injured worker bees – 15 to 30 died bees. The presence of a wire tensioner provides a good conductibility of the current and consequently an optimum bee electrocuting. In view of the foregoing, three conclusions draw oneself: 1-The production of bee venom in Moroccan apiary will constitute a new practice in addition to others and consequently an additional income for beekeepers. 2-This device will be the first step to develop other apparatus with several improved and coupled techniques. 3-The feasibility of bee venom collected by this device can likely confirmed by a chemical and biological characterization.
- Honeybee venom synergistically enhances the cytotoxic effect of CNS drugs IN HT-29 colon and MCF-7 breast cancer cell linesPublication . Duarte, Diana; Falcão, Soraia; El Mehdi, Iouraouine; Vilas-Boas, Miguel; Vale, Nuno5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and doxorubicin (DOX) are potent anti-tumour agents commonly used for colon and breast cancer therapy, respectively. However, their clinical application is limited by their side effects and the development of drug resistance. Honeybee venom is a complex mixture of substances that has been reported to be effective against different cancer cells. Its active compound is melittin, a positively charged amphipathic peptide that interacts with the phospholipids of the cell membrane, forming pores that enable the internalization of small molecules with cytotoxic activities,. and consequently, causing cell death. Some central nervous system (CNS) drugs have recently demonstrated great anti-cancer potential, both in vitro, in vivo and in clinical trials, being promising candidates for drug repurposing in oncology. The present work evaluated the anti-cancer efficacy of honeybee venom in combination with chemotherapeutic or CNS drugs in HT-29 colon and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. The chemical characterization of a Portuguese sample of honeybee venom was done by LC-DAD-ESI/MSn analysis. For single treatments, cells were incubated with increasing concentrations of bee venom. For combination treatments, increasing concentrations of bee venom were first combined with the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 5-FU and DOX, in HT-29 and MCF-7 cells, respectively. Cells were also treated with increasing concentrations of bee venom in combination with the IC50 value of four CNS drugs (fluphenazine, fluoxetine, sertraline and thioridazine). Cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT and SRB assays. The combination index (CI) value was calculated using CompuSyn software, based on the Chou–Talalay method. Synergy scores of different reference models (HSA, Loewe, ZIP and Bliss) were also calculated using SynergyFinder. The results demonstrate that honeybee venom is active against HT-29 colon and MCF-7 breast cancer cells, having better anti-tumour activity in MCF-7 cells. It was found that bee venom combined with 5-FU and fluphenazine in HT-29 cells resulted in less cytotoxic effects compared to the co-treatment of fluoxetine, sertraline and thioridazine plus bee venom, which resulted in less than 15% of viable cells for the whole range of concentrations. The combination of MCF-7 cells with repurposed drugs plus honeybee venom resulted in better anti-cancer efficacies than with DOX, notably for lower concentrations. A combination of fluoxetine and thioridazine plus honeybee venom resulted in less than 40% of viable cells for all ranges of concentrations. These results support that the combination of honeybee venom with repurposed drugs and chemotherapeutic agents can help improve their anti-cancer activity, especially for lower concentrations, in both cell lines. Overall, the present study corroborates the enormous bioactive potential of honeybee venom for colon and breast cancer treatments, both alone and in combination with chemotherapy or repurposed drugs.