Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a chemically and structurally heterogeneous family of molecules produced by a large variety of living organisms, whose expression is predominant in the sites most exposed to microbial invasion. One of the richest natural sources of AMPs is insects which, over the course of their very long evolutionary history, have adapted to numerous and different habitats by developing a powerful innate immune system that has allowed them to survive but also to assert themselves in the new environment. Recently, due to the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, interest in AMPs has risen. In this work, we detected AMPs in the hemolymph of Hermetia illucens (Diptera, Stratiomyidae) larvae, following infection with Escherichia coli (Gram negative) or Micrococcus flavus (Gram positive) and from uninfected larvae. Peptide component, isolated via organic solvent precipitation, was analyzed by microbiological techniques. Subsequent mass spectrometry analysis allowed us to specifically identify peptides expressed in basal condition and peptides differentially expressed after bacterial challenge. We identified 33 AMPs in all the analyzed samples, of which 13 are specifically stimulated by Gram negative and/or Gram positive bacterial challenge. AMPs mostly expressed after bacterial challenge could be responsible for a more specific activity.

Background and Objectives: This three-year clinical trial aimed to demonstrate that only the signaling vesicles produced by ADSCa, containing mRNA, microRNA, growth factors (GFs), and bioactive peptides, provide an advantage over classical therapy with adipose disaggregate to make the tissue regeneration technique safer due to the absence of interfering materials and cells, while being extremely minimally invasive. The infiltration of disaggregated adipose nanofat, defined by the Tonnard method, for the regeneration of the dermis and epidermis during physiological or pathological aging continues to be successfully used for the presence of numerous adult stem cells in suspension (ADSCa). An improvement in this method is the exclusion of fibrous shots and cellular debris from the nanofat to avoid inflammatory phenomena by microfiltration. Materials and Methods: A small amount of adipose tissue was extracted after surface anesthesia and disaggregated according to the Tonnard method. An initial microfiltration at 20/40 microns was performed to remove fibrous shots and cellular debris. The microfiltration was stabilized with a sterile solution containing hyaluronic acid and immediately ultrafiltered to a final size of 0.20 microns to exclude the cellular component and hyaluronic acid chains of different molecular weights. The suspension was then injected into the dermis using a mesotherapy technique with microinjections. Results: This study found that it is possible to extract signaling microvesicles using a simple ultrafiltration system. The Berardesca Scale, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), and Modified Vancouver Scale (MVS) showed that it is possible to obtain excellent results with this technique. The ultrafiltrate can validly be used in a therapy involving injection into target tissues affected by chronic and photoaging with excellent results. Conclusions: This retrospective clinical evaluation study allowed us to consider the results obtained with this method for the treatment of dermal wrinkles and facial tissue furrows as excellent. The method is safe and an innovative regenerative therapy as a powerful and viable alternative to skin regeneration therapies, antiaging therapies, and chronic inflammatory diseases because it lacks the inflammatory component produced by cellular debris and fibrous sprouts and because it can exclude the mesenchymal cellular component by reducing multiple inflammatory cytokine levels.

The increasing global population and demand for meat have led to the need to find sustainable and viable alternatives to traditional production methods. One potential solution is cultivated meat (CM), which involves producing meat in vitro from animal stem cells to generate products with nutritional and sensory properties similar to conventional livestock‐derived meat. This article examines current approaches to CM production and investigates how using insect cells could enhance the process. Cell sources are a critical issue in CM production, alongside advances in culture media, bioreactors for scalability, and scaffold development. Insect cells, compared to commonly used mammalian cells, may offer advantages in overcoming technological challenges that hinder cell culture development and expansion. The objective of this review is to emphasize how insects, as a cell source for CM production, could offer a more sustainable option. A crucial aspect for achieving this goal is a comprehensive understanding of the physiology of muscle and fat cells. In this work, the characteristics of insect and mammalian cells are compared, focusing particularly on muscle and fat cell development, regulatory pathways, hormonal regulation, and tissue composition. Insect cells are a promising source for CM, offering a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative.

Innate immunity, the body’s initial defense against bacteria, fungi, and viruses, heavily depends on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are small molecules produced by all living organisms. Insects, with their vast biodiversity, are one of the most abundant and innovative sources of AMPs. In this study, AMPs from the red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), a known invasive pest of palm species, were examined. The AMPs were identified in the transcriptomes from different body parts of male and female adults, under different experimental conditions, including specimens collected from the field and those reared in the laboratory. The RPW transcriptomes were examined to predict antimicrobial activity, and all sequences putatively encoding AMPs were analyzed using several machine learning algorithms available in the CAMP_R3 database. Additionally, anticancer, antiviral, and antifungal activity of the peptides were predicted using iACP, AVPpred, and Antifp server tools, respectively. Physicochemical parameters were assessed using the Antimicrobial Peptide Database Calculator and Predictor. From these analyses, 198 putatively active peptides were identified, which can be tested in future studies to validate the in silico predictions. Genome-wide analysis revealed that several AMPs have predominantly emerged through gene duplication. Noticeably, we detect a newly originated defensin allele from an ancestral defensin via the deletion of two amino acids following gene duplication in RPW, which may confer an enhanced resilience to microbial infection. Our study shed light on AMP gene families and shows that high duplication and deletion rates are essential to achieve a diversity of antimicrobial mechanisms; hence, we propose the RPW AMPs as a model for exploring gene duplication and functional variations against microbial infection.

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance necessitates alternative strategies to conventional antibiotics. Insects represent a promising source of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) due to their potent innate immune responses. In this study, we investigated the hemolymph peptide extracts from Hermetia illucens larvae as a bioresource of infection-induced AMPs. Larvae were challenged with Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Micrococcus flavus) bacteria, and hemolymph-derived peptides were extracted and fractionated by RP-HPLC. Peptide fractions were screened in vitro by agar diffusion assay against a panel of pathogenic strains. While extracts from uninfected larvae were essentially inactive, fractions 9–13 from infected larvae showed broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, including against multidrug-resistant clinical isolates such as carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, suggesting an inducible immune response. Fractions were further analyzed by SDS-PAGE and LC-MS/MS to identify candidate AMPs, while shotgun proteomics on unfractionated extracts enabled quantitative comparison among conditions. Proteomics raw data are available via ProteomeXchange Consortium, with the dataset identifier PXD071144. In silico prediction using ProP 1.0, APD3, and CAMP_R4 supported the antimicrobial potential of candidate peptides. Overall, our integrative approach demonstrates that bacterial infection induces a diverse and bioactive immunopeptidome in H. illucens, supporting its potential as a sustainable platform for the discovery of novel antimicrobial agents.