TOXIC AND IMMUNE ALLERGIC RESPONSES OF ANT VENOM TOXINS: A REVIEW Review Article SIMRAN SHARMA, RAVI KANT UPADHYAY! Department of Zoology, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India Email: rkupadhya@yahoo.com Received: 30 May 2021, Revised and Accepted: 02 Sep 2021 ABSTRACT Present review article explains ant venom components and its allergic and biological effects in man and animals. Red ants or small fire ants secrete and inject venom very swiftly to defend their nest against predators, microbial pathogens, and competitors and to hunt the prey. Ant venom is a mixture of various organic compounds, including peptides, enzymes, and polypeptide toxins. It is highly toxic, allergic, invasive and venomous. It imposes sever paralytic, cytolytic, haemolytic, allergenic, pro-inflammatory, insecticidal, antimicrobial, and pain-producing pharmacologic activities after infliction. Victims show red ring-shaped allergic sign with regional swelling marked with intense pain. Ant venom also contains several hydrolases, oxidoreductases, proteases, Kunitz-like polypeptides, and inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK)-like (knottin) neurotoxins and insect defensins. Ant venom toxins/proteins generate allergic immune responses and employ eosinophils and produce Th2 cytokines, response. These compounds from ant venom could be used as a potential source of new anticonvulsants molecules. Ant venoms contain many small, linear peptides, an untapped source of bioactive peptide toxins. The remarkable insecticidal activity of ant venom could be used as a promising source of additional bio- insecticides and therapeutic agents. Keywords: Ant, Venom glands, Peptide toxins, Allergens, Immune responses and biological effects © 2021 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ijpps.2021v13i11.42227. Journal homepage: https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijpps. INTRODUCTION Ants represent a taxonomically diverse group of hymenopterans (formicidae) with over 13,000 extant species, the majority of which inject or spray secretions from a venom gland. Ants is mostly due to the unique eusociality that has permitted them to develop complex collaborative strategies, partly involving their venom secretions, to defend their nest against predators, microbial pathogens, ant competitors, and to hunt immobilize or kill prey for food, Ant venom contains a range of activities including antimicrobial, haemolytic, cytolytic, paralytic, insecticidal and pain-producing pharmacologies. Worker ants generate about 1.17 µg/day. Ant venom toxins can be used to generate bioinsecticides and therapeutic agents [1]. Members of sixteen ant families possess stinger and inflict toxic venom for defense against predators, competitors and microbial pathogens, as well as for social communication (fig. 1). Hymenoptera venoms, mainly ants secrete natural toxins which could be used to synthesize novel therapeutic agents. Ant secretes toxic venom that shows diverse bioactive molecules. Ant Odontomachus bauri crude venom presents several protein bands, with higher staining for six proteins with gelatinolytic activity venom showed high proteolytic activity on azocasein at optimal pH 8.0 and 37 °C. The South American giant ant, Dinoponera quadriceps produces proteinaceous venom. Its toxins are polycationic linear toxins which show multiple biological activities such as antinociceptive, neuroprotective and antimicrobial effects. Ant venom is also used for the treatment of asthma, rheumatism, earache and back pain. Venom from D. quadriceps shows anticoagulant antiplatelet and anti-inflammatory activities [2]. Ant venom is a rich resource depository of natural compounds with tremendous pharmacological properties. It is also rich in alkaloids and hydrocarbons. It also contains protease inhibitors as aprotinin, leupeptin the venom showed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli as well as anti-parasitic activity against Toxoplasma gondii [3]. Ant venom contains a range of activities including antimicrobial, haemolytic, cytolytic, paralytic, insecticidal and pain-producing pharmacologies. Worker ants generate about 1.17 µg/day. Ant venom toxins can be used to generate bioinsecticides and therapeutic agents Mass spectrometry techniques revealed that most peptide toxins are small polycationic linear toxins, which show antibacterial and insecticidal activity. The venom of the ruby ant Myrmica rubra is a rich source of peptides [4]. The present review explains ant venom toxins from various species, its composition, allergic and toxic effects with important biological activity and therapeutic use. Source of information For writing this comprehensive research review on ant toxins/ allergens, various databases were searched. For the collection of relevant information, specific terms such as medical subject headings (MeSH) and key text words, such as “ant venom allergens”, “biological and pharmaceutical effects”, therapeutic uses” published till 2021 were used in MEDLINE. Most specially for retrieving all articles pertaining to the use of VIT for insect venom allergy, electronic bibliographic databases were searched and abstracts of published studies with relevant information on the venom toxins/allergens were collected. Furthermore, additional references were included through searching the references cited by the studies done on the present topic. Relevant terms were used individually and in combination to ensure an extensive literature search. For updating the information about a subject and incorporation of recent knowledge, relevant research articles, books, conferences proceedings’ and public health organization survey reports were selected and collated based on the broader objective of the review. This was achieved by searching databases, including SCOPUS, Web of Science, and EMBASE, Pubmed, Swissprot, Google searches” From this common methodology, discoveries and findings were identified and summarized in this final review. Ant venom composition Ant species Odontomachus bauri cotains six proteins that possess mol wt. e. g. 17, 20, 26, 29, 43 and 48 kDa) its non-toxic fraction is used in chemical communication involving trail and sex pheromones, deterrents, and aggregators. Ant venom also contains several enzymes i.e. hydrolases, oxidoreductases, proteases, Kunitz-like polypeptides, and the less abundant inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK)-like (knottin) neurotoxins and insect defensins. Few of them showed high proteolytic [5]. The venom is 95% water-insoluble alkaloid, with the remaining 5% being an aqueous protein solution. Ant venoms contain a range of monomeric, homodimeric and heterodimeric peptides with one or two inter-chain disulfide bonds possessing pore-forming, allergenic and paralytic actions. The crude venom contains volatile and non-volatile compounds such as alkaloids and hydrocarbons [6]. The fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) contains Solenopsin, the alkaloidal International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Print ISSN: 2656-0097 | Online ISSN: 0975-1491 Vol 13, Issue 11, 2021