Composition comprising bee venom for the treatment of atherosclerosis

Abstract

The present invention provides bee venom which can decrease expression levels of sclerotic factors, inflammatory factors and vascular adhesion factors associated with atherosclerosis, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the bee venom as an active ingredient for the treatment of the atherosclerosis. When the bee venom was administered to laboratory animal models of atherosclerosis, the total cholesterol and neutral lipid were decreased, high-density cholesterol was maintained or even increased, the expression levels of TNF-α and IL-β as inflammation-associated cytokines were decreased in the blood, the expression levels of fibrosis-associated cytokines and vascular adhesion factors were decreased in the main artery and the heart, the plaque deposition generally caused by the atherosclerosis was decreased, and the expression levels of intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM), TGF-β1 and fibronectin as fibrosis-related cytokines were decreased.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.