Jelleine is a family of

peptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty am ...

s, isolated from the

royal jelly Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae and adult queens. It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of nurse bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony, regardless of sex or caste.Graham, J. (ed.) (199 ...

of '' Apis mellifera iberiensis,'' a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

. This new family has the potential to be used in the development of new drugs.

Discovery

Jelleines were first isolated in 2004 by the research group of Professor Mario Sergio Palma at

São Paulo State University São Paulo State University (Unesp, ) is a public university run by the São Paulo State Government, state government of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Unesp has a combined student body of over 45,000 spread among its 23 campuses. The ...

, Brazil. First, he collected royal jelly from a group of honey bee larvae and purified the results by reverse phase,

high-performance liquid chromatography High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), formerly referred to as high-pressure liquid chromatography, is a technique in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify specific components in mixtures. The mixtures can origin ...

. This purified royal jelly showed antimicrobial activity against different bacteria. So far, four peptides have been found in this family, each one containing the carboxamide C-terminal.

Medical research

Jelleine exhibits antimicrobial activity against '' S. epidermidis''.

References

Peptides Bee products Antiparasitic agents Colorectal cancer {{Improve categories, date=January 2024