ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL EFFICACY OF BEE VENOM AS AN ANTILEISHMANIAL CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC (IN VITRO)

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).