Helminths such as the blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni represent a major global health challenge due to limited availability of drugs. Most anthelminthic drug candidates are derived from plants, whereas insect-derived compounds have received little attention. This includes venom from assassin bugs, which contains numerous bioactive compounds. Here, we investigated whether venom from the European predatory assassin bug Rhynocoris iracundus has antischistosomal activity. Venom concentrations of 10–50 µg/mL inhibited the motility and pairing of S. mansoni adult worms in vitro and their capacity to produce eggs. We used EdU-proliferation assays to measure the effect of venom against parasite stem cells, which are essential for survival and reproduction. We found that venom depleted proliferating stem cells in different tissues of the male parasite, including neoblasts in the parenchyma and gonadal stem cells. Certain insect venoms are known to lyse eukaryotic cells, thus limiting their therapeutic potential. We therefore carried out hemolytic activity assays using porcine red blood cells, revealing that the venom had no significant effect at a concentration of 43 µg/mL. The observed anthelminthic activity and absence of hemolytic side effects suggest that the components of R. iracundus venom should be investigated in more detail as potential antischistosomal leads.

中文翻译：

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刺客虫毒对血吸虫曼氏血吸虫的驱虫活性

由于毒品供应有限，蠕虫（如曼氏血吸虫）代表了全球主要的健康挑战。大多数驱虫药候选药物均来自植物，而昆虫衍生的化合物却鲜有关注。这包括来自刺客虫的毒液，其中含有多种生物活性化合物。在这里，我们调查了来自欧洲掠夺性刺客臭虫Rhynocoris iracundus的毒液是否具有抗血吸虫活性。毒液浓度为10–50 µg / mL会抑制曼氏链球菌的活力和配对成虫在体外及其产卵的能力。我们使用EdU增殖测定法来测量毒液对寄生虫干细胞的影响，这对于存活和繁殖至关重要。我们发现，毒液耗尽了雄性寄生虫不同组织中的增殖干细胞，包括薄壁组织中的成胚细胞和性腺干细胞。已知某些昆虫毒液会裂解真核细胞，从而限制了它们的治疗潜力。因此，我们使用猪红细胞进行了溶血活性测定，结果表明该毒液在浓度为43 µg / mL时无明显作用。观察到的驱虫药活性和无溶血副作用表明，R。iracundus的成分 毒液应作为潜在的抗血吸虫病线索进行更详细的研究。