Abstract:
This study essentially evaluated the antileishmanial activity and
toxicity of the bee venom using in vitro techniques. The study also
compared in vitro the maintenance of L.donovani promastigotes in 2 types of
culture media, 3N and Hamin- agar media .The preliminary in vitro
examination of the potential antileishmanial effect of bee venom upon L.
donovani promastigotes when treated with 10-fold dilutions of this
chemotherapeutic agent (175X10-3- 0.0017X10-3μg/ml) for 24h at 25Co. The
highest response of growth inhibition (>70%) was obtained when the
parasite subjected to bee venom concentrations >1.0X10-3μg/ml but a total
inhibition of parasite population growth was only recorded at concentration
175X10-3μg/ml. IC50 was calculated as 3.0μg/ml.
The lymphocyte proliferation assay for toxicity was used to compare
the bee venom toxicity with Pentostam (Wellcome, UK), a standard
antileishmanial drug. The cytotoxic effect of bee venom has been expressed
as the mean percent inhibition of cell proliferation after 48h treatment with
bee venom. About 40% inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation was observed
when the lymphocytes were subjected in vitro to the highest concentration of
this therapeutic agent (175X10-3μg/ml) , Pentostam had no effect even at
maximum tested concentration 500μg/ml whereas bee venom appeared to
have some toxicity at concentrations <0.1X10-3μg/ml only. On the other
hand treatment of PMBC with low concentrations (0.001-0.1X10-3μg/ml) of
bee venom significantly stimulated PMBC proliferation (P<0.05).
