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Investigating the Health Benefits of Edible Products Derived from Bees and Other Economic Insects

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 April 2025) | Viewed by 887

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Interests: food quality evaluation; food nutrition and function; food metabolomics and lipidomics; gut microbiota; food allergy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute of Apiculture Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Interests: food nutrition; food composition analysis; gut microbiota; functional foods; food allergy; food authentication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The scarcity of food resources poses a significant challenge to human survival and development, necessitating the exploration of renewable alternatives and supplements to traditional sources. Insect resources, which remain largely untapped, offer immense potential for addressing this issue. Leveraging the advantages of insects, such as their diverse species, abundant populations, rapid reproduction rates, high protein content, and minimal environmental impact compared to animal-based sources, can effectively alleviate the shortage of food resources by transforming them into safe and nutritious edible products. Recently, some economic insects such as silkworms, bees, and mealworms have gradually gained popularity as natural/functional foods or supplements due to their nutritional/bioactive characteristics that are beneficial to human health. To enhance the quality and utilization of edible products derived from economic insects, it is crucial to strengthen the evaluation framework of their physicochemical and biological characteristics related to quality and safety standards while also promoting research on the development and application of insect-based products. We keenly invite submissions to this topic on “Investigating the Health Benefits of Edible Products Derived from Bees and Other Economic Insects”.

The topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Identification of physicochemical, nutritional, biological, and genetic characteristics of insect products;
  • Evaluation of biological/functional activities of insect products;
  • Research on food allergens in insect products;
  • Study on anti-nutrient substances in insect products.

Dr. Qiangqiang Li
Prof. Dr. Liming Wu
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • insect products
  • nutrients
  • bioactivities
  • food allergens
  • anti-nutrients
  • development
  • application

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 9872 KB  
Article
Detoxification of Insect-Derived Allergen PLA2 via Quercetin Modification: Molecular Simulation and Animal Validation
by Fukai Li, Liming Wu, Min Wang, Enning Zhou, Fei Pan, Jian Zhou, Mengrui Yang, Tongtong Wang, Liang Li and Qiangqiang Li
Nutrients 2025, 17(17), 2872; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17172872 - 4 Sep 2025
Viewed by 358
Abstract
Background: Insect-derived proteins constitute an underutilized biological resource requiring urgent exploration to address global food protein shortages. However, their widespread application is hindered by the allergenic potential, particularly phospholipase A2 (PLA2), a highly immunoreactive allergen prevalent in edible insects such as ants and [...] Read more.
Background: Insect-derived proteins constitute an underutilized biological resource requiring urgent exploration to address global food protein shortages. However, their widespread application is hindered by the allergenic potential, particularly phospholipase A2 (PLA2), a highly immunoreactive allergen prevalent in edible insects such as ants and honeybees. Objective: This study systematically investigated the molecular mechanism underlying quercetin-mediated reduction in PLA2 allergenicity, aiming to establish a novel strategy for developing hypoallergenic insect protein resources. Methods and Results: Through integrated computational and experimental approaches, we identified quercetin’s dual non-covalent and covalent binding capabilities with PLA2. Molecular docking revealed robust interactions (the binding energy of −6.49 kcal/mol) within the catalytic pocket. Meanwhile, mass spectrometry specifically identified Cys37 as the covalent modification site, which can bind to quercetin and increase the gyration radius (Rg) of PLA2 within 75–125 ns. Molecular dynamics simulations illustrated quercetin-induced conformational changes affecting critical antigenic epitopes. Murine experiments further confirmed that quercetin-modified PLA2 exhibited significantly reduced IgE reactivity and allergic responses compared to native PLA2, as demonstrated by assessments of anaphylactic behavior, histopathological changes, and measurements of serum IgE antibody and biogenic amine levels. Conclusions: Collectively, these findings provide a transformative approach to safely utilize insect-derived proteins for sustainable nutrition solutions. Full article
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