Helminthes and insects: maladies or therapies

Abstract

By definition, parasites cause harm to their hosts. But, considerable evidence from ancient traditional medicine has supported the theory of using parasites and their products in treating many diseases. Maggots have been used successfully to treat chronic, long-standing, infected wounds which failed to respond to conventional treatment by many beneficial effects on the wound including debridement, disinfection, and healing enhancement. Maggots are also applied in forensic medicine to estimate time between the death and discovery of a corpse and in entomotoxicology involving the potential use of insects as alternative samples for detecting drugs and toxins in death investigations. Leeches are segmented invertebrates, famous by their blood-feeding habits and used in phlebotomy to treat various ailments since ancient times. Leech therapy is experiencing resurgence nowadays in health care principally in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Earthworms provide a source of medicinally useful products with potential antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer properties. Lumbrokinases are a group of fibrinolytic enzymes isolated and purified from earthworms capable of degrading plasminogen-rich and plasminogen-free fibrin and so can be used to treat various conditions associated with thrombotic diseases. Helminth infection has been proved to have therapeutic effects in both animal and human clinical trials with promising evidence in treating many allergic diseases and can block the induction of or reduce the severity of some autoimmune disorders as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. What is more, venomous arthropods such as scorpions, bees, wasps, spiders, ants, centipedes, snail, beetles, and caterpillars. The venoms and toxins from these arthropods provide a promising source of natural bioactive compounds which can be employed in the development of new drugs to treat diseases as cancer. The possibility of using these active molecules in biotechnological processes can make these venoms and toxins a valuable and promising source of natural bioactive compounds. The therapeutic use of helminthes and insects will be of great value in biomedicine and further studies on insect toxins will contribute extensively to the development of Biomedical Sciences.

Human wound myiasis caused by Phormia regina and Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis in Minia Governorate, Egypt

“…Therefore, it is an important agent in forensic entomology because of particular usage to identify the postmortem interval in human death, and P. regina is a very important species among blow flies (Byrd and Castner 2001;Szpila et al 2008). On the other hand, the sterile larvae from the P. regina can be used in maggot therapy (also known as maggot debridement therapy, larva therapy, biodebridement, or biosurgery) in order to selectively clean out the necrotic tissue only within the wound and enhance wound recovery (Nigam et al 2006;Hays 2007;Shi and Shofler 2014;Sherman 2014;El-Tantawy 2015).…”

Insect proteins as a potential source of antimicrobial peptides in livestock production. A review

“…Paradoxically, they are also a source of different natural substances which can be employed in the development of natural bioactive compounds used for medical, veterinary and agricultural purposes. Insect toxins belong to compounds having a large number of molecules with biological activities, acting as pain-killers and drugs for neurologic and autoimmune diseases including arthritis and rheumatism, and even for cancer therapy (El-Tantawy, 2015).…”

Insects: an underrepresented resource for the discovery of biologically active natural products

“…Solenopsin A ( 8 ), are well-known antiangiogenic active alkaloids isolated from Solenopsis invicta and Solenopsis germinate fire ants. The key mechanism of action reportedly involves selective inhibition of protein kinase B (AKT), a molecular target of growing interest in cancer18, 44, 56, 57. In 2012, three new alkaloids ( 9 -- 11 ) were isolated from the alate queen ants of S. richteri , S.invicta and hybrid ( S. richteri × S. invicta ) and two years later an additional 36 alkaloids58, 59.…”

“…Insects as natural product resources have also been featured in reviews published from 2010–201514, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44. However, the scope of the aforementioned articles often includes other arthropods, covers a limited selection of insects, focuses heavily on insect byproducts and incorporates uses outside of pharmaceutical applications.…”