In Vitro Study on the Effect of Bee Venom on Some Cell Lines and Lumpy Skin Disease Virus

Bee venom (BV) was used from long time ago in the medical field as treatment of chronic joint affections. In the recent decades, the screening process of new sources of antimicrobials discovers its high advantageous characteristics for combating various types of microbes, as well as trials to discover its anti-cancer medicinal fields. Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) causes disease in cattle of economic importance, and this work aimed to find treatment as well as alternative inactivant for LSDV. The use of bee venom as antiviral was experimented in this work and exhibited satisfied inhibitory effects on LSDV, meanwhile, the antigenic properties was still intact. The viability of virus was tested in tissue culture cells lines and in embryonated chicken eggs. According to doses and time of exposure, the cell lines of Hep-2 (human larynx carcinoma) and MCF7 (breast carcinoma cell line) were treated with different concentrations of BV and examined after 24 h post-inoculation. The Hep-2 and MCF7 cell lines were treated with various concentrations of BV in descending doses as follow: 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 and 0.5 ug/mL of BV. Then bee venom pathological effects on Hep-2 cells and MCF7 cells were observed, such as apoptosis, retarded growths and cytolysis. The results indicate the possibilities of using bee venom as anti-neoplastic and antiviral.