Pharmacological and therapeutic potential of honey bee antimicrobial peptides

Honey bees (Apidae: Apini) and stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) act as the main pollinators for many wild and cultivated tropical plants, playing a vital role in the ecology, economy, and culture. Honey bees and stingless bees are one of the major sources of antimicrobial peptides/proteins (AMPs) synthesized in fat bodies and blood cells of bees. Bee AMPs are a class of small peptides having amino acid residues between 9 and 340, classified based on source, activity, structural characteristics, and amino acid-rich species. AMP's have a wide range of inhibitory effects against bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses. Four antimicrobial peptide families, i.e., apidaecins (proline-rich), abaecin (proline-rich), hymenoptaecin (glycine-rich), and defensin (cystine-rich) are synthesized in the haemolymph, signifying a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Jelleines (I-IV), royalisin, apisimin (serine-valine-rich peptide), 10 HDA, apalbumin, and apisin, which are present in royal jelly, have antimicrobial, mast cell degranulating, and hemolysis activity. Bee venom also contains several bioactive peptides, such as apamin (leucine-cystine-rich), melittin (leucine-alanine-rich), melectin (lysine-rich), adolapin, secapin (proline-rich), and tertiapin (cystine-lysine-rich). Currently, AMPs databases are displaying an essential role in exploration, identification, characterization, and annotation. Several AMPs databases (CAMP, DRAMP, APD, InverPep, LAMP, ADAPTABLE, ADAM, AntiBP, AMPer, AVPpred, EFC-FCBF, and class AMP) are open-access resources that have been developed to enhance research on antimicrobial peptides. Bee immune responses are composed of a multifaceted group of individual immune mechanisms and special types of behavioral adaptations. Given the importance of drug discovery from honey bee AMPs, this review is aimed at providing an exhaustive screening of the AMPs detected in honey and honeybee products and their classification, databases, computational tools, physicochemical properties, signaling pathways, pharmaceutical and clinical uses, application status, prospects, and problems to be solved.