Combined Effect of Honey Bee Venom and Vitamin B12 on Lewis Rats with Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis Induced by Guinea Pig Spinal Cord Homogenates

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease of central nervous system (CNS). Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a widely accepted animal model for MS. Honey bee venom (Apis mellifera) contains a variety of low and high molecular weight peptides and proteins including melittin, apamin, adolapin, mast cell degranulating peptide and phospholipase A2. Bee venom (BV) could exert anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects on the inflammatory reactions. Chronic inflammation is often accompanied by oxidative stresses. New observations suggest that cobolamins (derivatives of vitamin B12) may modulate the responses of oxidative stress. Regarding the role of vitamin B12 in the formation of myelin sheet, modulation of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and its role in the regulating the immune reactions and anti-oxidant role; this compound is used in the present study as an accessory and accompanying agent with the bee venom for studying their combined impact on rat model EAE. The hematoxylin, eosin and luxol fast blue methods were used in the analyses of inflammation and demyelination detection, respectively. While, immunohistochemistry, ELISA and HPLC were used for the data assessment. In this study, we showed that the treatment of EAE with a combination of bee venom and vitamin B12 decreased the symptoms of disorder, pathological changes, level of serum TNF-α, gliosis and the nitric oxide (NO) production.