| Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with unknown molecular pathological mechanisms and with inflammatory synovitis as the main clinical features. The main pathological symptoms of RA is aggressive arthritis at the multiple joints symmetrically in hands and feet, and even RA finally appears the deformity of joints and loss of their functions. RA displays long time in pathological process, and it causes high disable rate which is up to 20% within one year, and up to 60% in 10 years. In recent years, the morbidity of RA is rising, for example, in China is 0.37%, and in developed countries is 1%. The treatment for RA becomes more difficult due to the pathological features of RA itself, meanwhile, the physiological, psychological and economic burdens of patients with RA and their family become heavey. Therefore, it is necessary for patients with RA of carrying out early diagnosis and treatments.Using bee acupuncture to treat RA has been recorded in the history of both Chinese medicne and Western medicine. The bee acupuncture is a “cheap”, “easy” and “effective” treatment method for RA. Up to now, many literatures focused at the effects of bee acupuncture used clinically, but the studies on complete detailed mechanisms of bee acupuncture therapy have not been reported yet. Furthermore, there are no uniform standard and systematic therapy program about the clinic practice protocol of bee acupuncture therapy, assaying hypersensitivity and toxicity of bee acupuncture. Besides, the effects of bee acupuncture therapy vary with different patients, and the standards on scientific objective assessments to its therapeutic effects are in short. Therefore, it is necessary and important to explore bee acupuncture treating RA.Using the biochemical and pharmacological methods and techniques, this study analyzed and measured the physical and chemical properties, and bilogical(or pharmacological) acivities of venom from Apis cerana in Chongqing. Then, in order to examine the therapy effect of bee acupuncture for treating RA, we have tested TNF-α and IL-6 in mouse serum, measured the index about spleen and thymus of mice and observed the slices of ankle tissue of mice. Our experiment results showed that there averagely is 256.3 μg proteins in the venom from one single guarding bee(A. cerana), and the phospholipase activity in venom of guarding bee is 56.79 U/mg; the hyaluronidase activity in venom of guarding bee is 16.33 U/mg; the minimum concentrations of inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtili and Escherichia coli are 1.53 μg/mL, 0.42 μg/m L and 26.3 μg/mL, respectively; About the hemolytic activity of bee venom, when the concentration of bee venom is 8.33 μg/m L, 50% blood cells of mouse were hemolytic. The compared experiment results on RA mouse models by induced by adjuvant(AA) and type Ⅱ collagen(CIA) indicated that bee acupuncture therapy may significantly reduce TNF-α, IL-6 content in mouse serum, swelling degree of mouse paws, the index of thymus and spleen of mouse; And bee acupuncture therapy has a protective effect for the ankle of RA mouse. All the results revealed that bee acupuncture therapy is effective for treating AA mouse or CIA mouse. In addition, by comparing the different stinging times of the bee stingers kept in mouse body, it was found that 5 min of the stinging time was best at the aspects of costs and effects.In summary, the bee venom from A. cerana in Chongqing has strong anti-bacterial and hemolytic capacities. Using two experimental mouse models(AA and CIA) of RA treated by bee acupuncture, we confirmed that bee acupuncture therapy for experimental RA has some therapeutic effects, but its treatment mechanism needs to be further studied. |
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