Wasp venom is rich in bioactive substances, such as proteins, peptides, and small molecules. The venom significantly affects the mammalian cardiovascular, nervous, and immune systems, causing mild to severe symptoms following stings. It exhibits both procoagulant and anticoagulant activities, and significant research has identified its ability to modulate the mammalian coagulation system. Active substances that inhibit clotting were identified and purified through patient case reports and experimental studies. The study reviewed the findings on how wasp venom interacts with platelets and coagulation factors, such as fibrinogen and prothrombin, and demonstrated its dual influence on the coagulation cascade. This highlights the potential of the venom in therapeutic applications, especially as an anticoagulant, as evidenced by the inhibition of coagulation factors and prolonged clotting times after envenomation, suggesting its utility in developing novel anticoagulant therapies. This review focuses on the anticoagulant effects of social wasp venom, which is prevalent in sting incidents, summarizing the research and observations on its therapeutic potential. This emphasizes the significance of further studies to identify and utilize venom components as innovative anticoagulant treatments.

The lesser paper wasp, Parapolybia varia, belongs to large subfamily Polistinae and is distributed in Middle East, the Indo-Papuan region and East Asia. P. varia is known to become aggressive when disturbed for defending their colonies, resulting in fatal envenomation. Vespid chemotactic peptide (VCP) and vespakinin have recently been determined to be the top two genes most abundantly transcribed in venom glands of P. varia. To investigate the pharmacological and toxicological properties of VCP and vespakinin, their antitumor, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities were evaluated. VCP exhibited a significantly high antitumor activity against ovarian tumor cell SK-OV-3 at 100 M. VCP also showed higher hemolytic activity than vespakinin. Antimicrobial activity was only observed with VCP against yeast Candida albicans at 1 mM. Since VCP showed a relatively low hemolytic activity but a considerable level of antitumor activity, it has further merits to be exploited as a potential antitumor agent with reduced side effects on normal cells.

To investigate genes differentially expressed in the venom of social and solitary wasps, a comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted. Subtractive expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries specific to the venom gland and sac (gland/sac) of a social wasp species, Vespa tropica and a solitary hunting wasp species, Rhynchium brunneum, was constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization. In BLASTx analysis, 41% and 56% of the total ESTs showed statistically best-matched hits (E ≤ 10-4) in the libraries of V. tropica and R. brunneum, respectively. Although the functional category analysis did not show remarkable differences in the distribution of functional categories between the two venom gland/sac cDNA libraries, perhaps due to the lack of functional information on many of the venom components, there were groups of genes that are specific to either V. tropica or R. brunneum. Venom allergen 5 and serine protease were found to be social wasp-specific venom transcripts. In contrast, venom peptides, metalloendopeptidases, arginine kinase and dendrotoxin were observed in solitary wasp at much higher frequencies.

Rhynchium brunneum is a widely distributed wasp species in South Eastern Asia. R. brunneum females were collected from rural provinces of Cambodia, and their total RNA and venom were extracted on site. To search for novel substances in venom, a subtracted cDNA library specific to the venom gland and sac was constructed. A total of 1118 expressed sequenced sequence tags (ESTs) were sequenced and assembled into 349 contigs (107 multiple sequences and 242 singletons). In this result, we found the putative neurotoxin (DTX protein precursor), antimicrobial peptides (teratocyte-specific caboxylesterase) together with typical major components of wasp venom (venom hyaluronidase, arginine kinase, phospholipase A2, serine/theonine protein phosphatase). Additional in-depth annotation would be required for further characterization of many unidentified genes found in the EST library.

Vespa tropica is a tropical species of Vespa found in Southeast Asia. V. tropica wasps were collected from rural provinces of Cambodia, and their total RNA and venom were extracted on site. To search for novel substances in venom, a subtracted cDNA library specific to the venom gland and sac was constructed and venom protein was analyzed by nano-LC-MS/MS. A total of 1127 expressed sequenced sequence tags (ESTs) were sequenced and assembled into 572 contigs (152 multiple sequences and 420 singletons). The short venom peptides were identified to be encoded from 5 contigs (43 ESTs) by proteomic analysis. In addition, putative antimicrobial peptides together with typical major components of wasp venom (venom allergen 5, mastoparan-like peptide, serine protease, and hyaluronidase) were identified in the EST Library. Additional in-depth annotation would be required for further characterization of many unidentified genes found in the EST library.