Pharmacological Properties of the Medical Maggot: A Novel Therapy Overview

Table 1

Overview of the bioactivities of maggot.

Bioactivity	Substance/component/molecule	Object	Mechanism	Reference
Antibacterial	Ammonium carbonate; Allantoin	-	Raise PH value	[10]
	Lucifensin	Staphylococcus Streptococcus species	Form ion channels or transmembrane pores	[15]
	Lucifensin II	Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa	-	[18]
	Lucilin	Multidrug resistance Gram-negative bacteria	-	[20]
	MAMP	Standard and antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus	Increase membrane permeability	[21]
	Seraticin	Bacillus cereus Escherichia coli	Lysis of the bacterial membrane	[13]
	p-Hydroxyphenylacetic acid; p-Hydroxybenzoic acid; Proline diketopiperazine	Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa	-	[14]
Antibiofilm	Chymotrypsin 1	Staphylococcus aureus Staphylococcus epidermidis	Disrupt protein adhesin-mediated biofilm formation	[27]
	DNAse	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Digest DNA in biofilm	[29]
Synergistic effect with antibiotic	Serine proteases	Gentamicin, flucloxacillin; Ciprofloxacin; Vancomycin, daptomycin, clindamycin	Reduce minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC); Break down biofilm to allow the bacterial cells exposure to the antibiotics	[31–33]
Antifungal	Lucimycin	Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, Candida albicans,; Phytophthora parasitica	Metal complex formation to a specific receptor	[35, 36]
Anti-inflammation	ES	Neutrophils	Reduce superoxide generation, myeloperoxidase, and CD11b/CD18; Inhibit neutrophil chemotaxis; Cyclic AMP-dependent mechanism	[38]
	ES	Monocytes	Inhibit monocytes chemotaxis; Decrease in IL-12p40, TNF-α, MIF; Increase in IL-10	[39]
	ES	Macrophage	Differentiate from proinflammatory to proangiogenic type; Decrease MIP-1β, RANTES, and PDGF-BB; Increase MCP-1 and IL-8	[40]
	Kind of thermostable protein	Complement system	Break down complement proteins C3 and C4	[41, 42]
Immunomodulatory	BLIP	T lymphocyte	Downregulate IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, and CD25; Upregulate TNF-α and TGF-β	[43]
Proangiogenic	Unsaturated fatty acid	Microvascular endothelial cell	Improve migration; Activate AKT1 signaling pathway	[49]
	Histidine; Valinol 3-guanidinopropionic acid	Human umbilical vein endothelial cell	Improve migration; Enhance VEGFR-2, CD34 and CD68	[47]
	Not identified	Hepatocyte growth factor	Downregulate c-Myc, VEGF, and cyclin D1; Activate STAT3 and TGF-β/Smad3 signaling pathway	[50, 51]
Fibroblast migration/proliferation and ECM remodelling	Kind of serine proteinases	Fibroblasts keratinocytes	Increase cell metabolism and protein production (secondary lysosomes and residual bodies)	[54, 55]
	Trypsin/chymotrypsin-like serine; Metalloproteinases; Aspartyl proteases	EMC components	Degrade fibronectin; Solubilize fibrin clots; Digest ECM components	[57]
Procoagulant	Jonah-like protein	Human plasma; Whole blood	Reduce clotting time; Activate contact proteins factors XII, IX, and kininogen	[61]
Neuranagenesis	Homogenate products	-	Promote neuropeptides (PGP 9.5 and substance P) release	[62, 63]
Antitumor	ω-6 PUFA	Human leukemia cells; A-549 lung cancer cells; H22 hepatoma	Activate p38MAPK signal pathway	[64, 65]
Antiatherosclerosis	ES	Murine serum	Decrease TC, TG, LDL; Increase HDL; Regulate CD4+/CD8+ ratio	[66, 67]