Insect Proteins & Serotonin Levels

[ali_dan]

Hi all,

I'm quite new to Bluelight, but I've been impressed with what I've read here and thought this might be of interest.

I'm trained in traditional Chinese herbalism, and have recently been looking through old favorite herbs for novel uses.
This "herb" is actually the discarded shell of the cicada, Cryptotympana sp., known by the pharmaceutical name of Periostracum Cicadae, and the traditional Chinese name Chan Tui. It's classically used for many things, most notably for its anti-convulsive, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, and sedative actions. It is a very mild medicinal, and thus often used for children. I've personally used it quite a bit, and find it to work quite well, if subtly, for common colds and anxiety.

At any rate, it's a very nice "herb".

What's surprising to me is that unlike most other herbs in Chinese medicine, there is a shocking lack of info in the literature about its pharmacological mechanism and components.

What I did find suggests some sort of action in which serotonin and other neurotransmitters may play a major role, thus my posting it here. The abstract of the study I found shows that the researchers, among other things, found that the herbal extract was strongly potentiated by 5-HTP. Another study found 2 N-acetyldopamine dimers to be quite active in the extract.

I guess I'm wondering if any more experienced Bluelighters can help me direct my approach to figuring out more about how this herb might work. I've got literally kilos of the stuff around in my herbal pharmacy, and was thinking I might try an extraction to see if I could isolate anything interesting.

At any rate, check out the studies below and let me know if you have any thoughts.


Studies on the anticonvulsive, sedative and hypothermic effects of Periostracum Cicadae extracts

Journul of Ethnophurmucology, 35 ( 199 I ) 83-90
Abstract:
The anticonvulsive, sedative and hypothermic effects of water and ethanol extracts of Periostracum Cicadae (PC), the cast off skin
of Cryptotympana atrutu were studied. The water-extract of whole Periostracum Cicadae (PCws) had anticonvulsive. sedative and
hypothermic effects in rats. Orally, it decreased carrageenin-induced hyperthermia. The hypothermic effect of PCws was potentiated
by S-hydroxytryptophan and antagonized by p-chlorophenylalanine. PCws enhanced the decrease in locomotor activity induced by
o-methyl-p-tyrosine or 5-hydroxytryptophan and reduced the increase in locomotor activity produced by levodopa plus benserazide
or p-chlorophenylalanine. From these results, it was concluded that the sedative and hypothermic effect of PCws may be due to an
increase in central serotonergic activity.


Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of N-acetyldopamine dimers from Periostracum Cicadae

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 14 (2006) 7826–7834

Abstract
A known N-acetyldopamine dimer, (2R,3S)-2-(30,40-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-acetylamino-7-(N-acetyl-200-aminoethyl)-1,4-
benzodioxane (1) and a new N-acetyldopamine dimer, (2R,3S)-2-(30,40-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-acetylamino-7-(N-acetyl-200-aminoethylene)-
1,4-benzodioxane (2) were isolated from the methanolic extracts of Periostracum Cicadae. Compounds 1 and 2 inhibited the
Cu2+-mediated, 2,20-azobis(2-amidinopropane) hydrochloride (AAPH)-mediated, and 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN)-1-mediated
LDL oxidation in the thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) assay. The antioxidant activities of 1 and 2 were tested with
respect to other parameters, such as lag time of conjugated diene formation, relative electrophoretic mobility (REM), and apoB-100
fragmentation on copper-mediated LDL-oxidation. Compounds 1 and 2 also showed 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrasyl (DPPH) radical
scavenging activity. Compound 2 was more efficient than compound 1 at inhibiting the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation,
nitric oxide (NO) production, and nuclear factor-jB (NF-jB) activity as well as the expression of pro-inflammatory molecules such
as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in LPSinduced
RAW264.7 cells.

 

[Dondante]

I attached a jpeg for anyone interested.

As far as interaction with NTs, I didn't look at the study, but excess serotonin (as in serotonin syndrome) is a cause of hyperthermia. It's unlikely that you can extrapolate the data from the first study to clinically relevant effects in humans.

The second article seems to answer your question. There's obviously not a whole lot known about it, so personally I'd stick with the long list of proven anti-inflammatory/antioxidants. Ethnopharmacology is a very interesting field ... I'm sure Chinese knowledge of herbs is going to continue to feed Western drug development for years to come.

 

[mad_scientist]

Analysis of those Chinese herbal medicines to find the active components is a really interesting field, and still so much left to do. I've seen at least three decent compounds that were produced simply by extracting and purifying the appropriate fraction from herbs that have been used for centuries. Pity so much of the research in this area is all written in Chinese but thats starting to change too...

All the other herbal medicines traditions from around the world are similarly rich, the ayurvedic herbs from India and of course all the jungle plants from S America and SE Asia. I just hope we get the chance to analyse them all and sequence their genomes before climate change and deforestation make half of them extinct!

 

[Ham-milton]

I'm really interested in these Picralima nitida alkaloids. Particulary, I'm wonder how it retains analgesic activity if the antagonist (akuamine, I think) is present in much larger quantities.

(even when neutralize potencies effect, ie: 1mg of X is A potent, and Y is B potent, so (ie:You have 7mg of Morphine, 2mg of Buprenorphine, 10mg morphine = .3 Buprenorphine, roughly 33x more potent. So, 7mg = ~.21 mg of bupe.)

It'd be interesting if someone were to take a look for what sorts of SARs could be derived from looking at the few natural indolic mu agonists, and of course all the synthetic ones derived from the study of them. I'm pretty sure a whole series of mitragynine analogues were synthesized and receptor affinities tested. Not sure if the same was done for P. nitida alkaloids.

 

[negrogesic]

Reminds me of Naked Lunch...

I had read a few months ago of an opioid peptide from a tick that i believe has been used in traditional chinese medicine. I believe it is called Amblyoma (spelling? whatever genus hard ticks are) testindinarium. Watch out for the rickettsial and spirochetal diseases associated with these ticks...

 

[FrostyMcFailure]

so then could people get high from smoking or digesting crushed sacata shells?

 

[ali_dan]

Reminds me of Naked Lunch...

I had read a few months ago of an opioid peptide from a tick that i believe has been used in traditional chinese medicine. I believe it is called Amblyoma (spelling? whatever genus hard ticks are) testindinarium.

I looked up the Amblyomma tick but couldn't find it any of my books or on the web as a traditional chinese medicinal. But who knows, there's a lot of obscure substances sometimes used. You have any more info?

so then could people get high from smoking or digesting crushed sacata shells?

You certainly don't get "high" by ingesting the chan tui (cicada moltings) when they are prepared the traditional way. I have no idea what would happen if you smoked them. I'm more personally interested in the pharmacological interactions and potential.

Analysis of those Chinese herbal medicines to find the active components is a really interesting field, and still so much left to do. I've seen at least three decent compounds that were produced simply by extracting and purifying the appropriate fraction from herbs that have been used for centuries. Pity so much of the research in this area is all written in Chinese but thats starting to change too...

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I'm convinced that in the next room over where I keep my herbal pharmacy that I'm almost certainly sitting on some wonder-drug that no one has bothered to isolate and experiment with yet. I'm just trying to figure out where to begin looking.

Chinese herbs are usually arranged by class of main action, for instance "heat clearing," "blood nourishing," etc. I think that while there is certainly great potential in the hardcore disease attacking categories of herbs for future drugs, that a far more "interesting" set of compounds are likely to be found in the categories that do funny things like "regulate the qi." These qi regulators are often used for a broad range of pathologies that result from what today we call "stress." What causes these herbs to harmonize the stress response?

I'm contemplating an attempt at an extraction similar to one of the articles I originally cited to see if I can't end up with some of these acetyldopamine dimers, but I need to mess around with the extraction scheme and planning first.

If I were able to get them, I'm really not sure what I would do with them though!

Any suggestions?

 

[negrogesic]

In regards to A. stindinarium, the only thing I remember is the identification/isolation of the stindinarium opioid peptide at Nanjing university, although i thought i had read of the tick having been used in Chinese traditional medicine (if you can't find the article from Nanjing i will link it)...

I had also read about a Scolopendra (centipede) that is used in either Korean or Chinese traditional medicine (i have no clue what the differences are). I was under the impression that the actives in scolopendra venom were neurotransmitters like 5-ht or histamine (and possibly some quinoline alkaloids), but i could certainly be wrong.

There is probably much to gained from ethnopharmacology...