Jelleine, a Family of Peptides Isolated from the Royal Jelly of the Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), as a Promising Prototype for New Medicines: A Narrative Review

Abstract

The jelleine family is a group of four peptides (jelleines I–IV) originally isolated from the royal jelly of honey bee (Apis mellifera), but later detected in some honey samples. These oligopeptides are composed of 8–9 amino acid residues, positively charged (+2 to +3 at pH 7.2), including 38–50% of hydrophobic residues and a carboxamide C-terminus. Jelleines, generated by processing of the C-terminal region of major royal jelly proteins 1 (MRJP-1), play an important biological role in royal jelly conservation as well as in protecting bee larvae from potential pathogens. Therefore, these molecules present numerous benefits for human health, including therapeutic purposes as shown in preclinical studies. In this review, we aimed to evaluate the biological effects of jelleines in addition to characterising their toxicities and stabilities. Jelleines I–III have promising antimicrobial activity and low toxicity (LD50 > 1000 mg/Kg). However, jelleine-IV has not shown relevant biological potential. Jelleine-I, but not the other analogues, also has antiparasitic, healing, and pro-coagulant activities in addition to indirectly modulating tumor cell growth and controlling the inflammatory process. Although it is sensitive to hydrolysis by proteases, the addition of halogens increases the chemical stability of these molecules. Thus, these results suggest that jelleines, especially jelleine-I, are a potential target for the development of new, effective and safe therapeutic molecules for clinical use.