Antimicrobial and antiviral activity of maggots extracts of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Abstract

This study was conducted as an attempt to investigate the antimicrobial activity of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) maggots whole body extracts produced by different solvents against some bacterial and fungal strains, and also to study the role of L. sericata maggot extracts as antiviral therapeutic agents. Results showed that the highest antibacterial activity was attained by petroleum ether extract 24h post treatment for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria either by Microbial Growth Inhibition method or by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration method. Regarding the antifungal activity, all tested extracts showed antifungal activity against tested fungal strains and it may be arranged in descending order as the following: Petroleum Ether> Hexane > Ethyl Acetate > acetone. In addition, the antiviral activity was determined and the maximum non-toxic concentration was 39.06µg/ml. The obtained results explained that petroleum ether extract was effective as anti-HSV with anti-viral activity percent of 92.9. Generally, the available results indicate that L. sericata maggot extracts induced remarkable effects on both antimicrobial and antiviral activities.

Variation in hemolymph content and properties among three Mediterranean bee species

“…Generally, DMSO dissolved hemolymph extracts possessed higher cytotoxic activities against HepG2 and HeLa cancer cell lines than the effect of PBS extracts. Our proteomic profiling analysis revealed the presence of variations according to the type of dissolved proteins in different solvents, in agreement with studies on the impact of solvent on the protein structure [21,58]. According to Kramer [59] and Nugraha [21], altered solvents affects the protein solubility thus may influences the hemolymph bio-activities.…”

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus larvae: A novel source for combating broad-spectrum bacterial and fungal infections

“…In addition to R. ferrugineus, the utilization of insect larvae as a potential antimicrobial source has been studied in many other organisms, including Hermetia illucens, Lucilia sericata, Musca domestica, Chrysomya megacephala, Tenebrio molitor, Sarconesiopsis magellanica, and Scarabaeus sacer. Extracts from all these insects demonstrated significant antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains [59][60][61][62][63][64][65].…”

“…Extracts of this pest have been immunized against several bacterial strains, and it has been concluded that the Lactobacillus casei-immunized H. illucens extract possesses potent antibacterial properties and serves as a natural preservative that mitigates the risk of contamination by various Salmonella species [59]. Another pest of interest is L. sericata, which in a research by Amer et al [64], its maggot extracts showed great activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa), Gram-positive bacteria (Streptococcus pyogenes, S. aureus, and B. subtilis), and several fungi (Geotricum candidum, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.17/January-2024/18.pdf Penicillium spp.) [64].…”

“…Another pest of interest is L. sericata, which in a research by Amer et al [64], its maggot extracts showed great activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa), Gram-positive bacteria (Streptococcus pyogenes, S. aureus, and B. subtilis), and several fungi (Geotricum candidum, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.17/January-2024/18.pdf Penicillium spp.) [64]. The larvae of M. domestica and C. megacephala were studied in the same research by Sahalan et al [65] for their antimicrobial activities.…”

“…Mohamed et al [8] tested the antimicrobial activity of S. sacer hemolymph against fungi (A. fumigatus and C. albicans), Gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus and B. subtilis), and Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli and Enterobacter cloacae), where the hemolymph exhibited the greatest antibacterial action against Gramnegative bacteria (E. cloacae more than E. coli), followed by Gram-positive bacteria B. subtilis more than S.aureus). These studies show that potential antimicrobial agents sourced from insects can act against a wide range of microbes and can compete with conventional broad-spectrum antibiotics, with the potential to circumvent the antibiotic resistance of a number of microorganisms [8,59,[61][62][63][64][65].…”