Active components of mantis eggs and their immunomodulatory effect in a mouse model

Tenodera angustipennis is an Asian praying mantis, whose crude extracts have long been used for the prevention and treatment of bacterial and viral diseases. Despite significant progress in obtaining biomaterials from praying mantis, antiherpetic activity of T. angustipennis eggs is not well defined. In this study, we characterized the crude extracts from T. angustipennis eggs using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) methods. Inhibition of cell proliferation by mantis egg extracts and isolated components was investigated on lymphocytes in a MTT assay. Furthermore, the effects of egg extracts against the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) strain KOS (HSV-1 KOS) were evaluated in a mouse model. The HPLC and GC/MS results showed that the extracts are mainly composed of stearic acid monoterpenes, octadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid, and propionic acid. Investigation on the immunomodulatory effects of the extracted components following infection of mice with HSV-1 KOS virus showed an increase in serum interferon-gamma level (26.01 ± 5.21 vs. 18.67 ± 3.23 pg/mL, respectively) and interleukin-10 level (106.64 ± 4.13 vs. 48.04 ± 3.12 pg/mL, respectively) in test and control groups (for both p