Bee venom can kill cancer cells. In a discovery which has created quit a buzz is when Australian scientists found that honeybee venom can kill some of the most aggressive types of breast cancer cells. This includes triple-negative breast cancer, while leaving normal cells unharmed. The study is conducted by Dr Ciara Duffy, from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and the University of Western Australia, tested venom from over 300 honeybees and bumblebees collected in Australia, Ireland, and England. The results were published in the journal Nature Precision Oncology, which revealed that venom along with melittin, which is its key component, showed a potent and selective anti-cancer effect. “We found that honeybee venom and melittin significantly, selectively, and rapidly reduced the viability of triple-negative and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells,” Dr. Duffy said. “The venom was extremely potent, in some cases, destroying cancer cell membranes within just 60 minutes.”Melittin: What Makes It So Powerful?The researcher focused melittin, which is a small, positively charged peptide. It is also responsible for painful sting of a bee. Melittin can also be synthetically reproduced. Researchers also found that this synthetic version could be mirror most of the anti-cancer properties of natural venom. The study found that at specific concentrations, the venom induced 100% cancer cell death that too with minimal impact on breast cells. Within 20 minutes, melittin was found to disrupt the chemical signalling pathways or the "messages" that cancer cells use to grow and multiply.“We saw that melittin shut down the activation of key receptors that are commonly overexpressed in aggressive cancers,” Dr. Duffy explained. “In triple-negative breast cancer, it blocked the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and in HER2-positive cancers, it suppressed the HER2 receptor.”Melittin thus stops the cancer cells from multiplying and works as a potential therapeutic agent. Can Nature Work With Modern Medicine?The researchers also studied if melittin could enhance the effects of existing chemotherapy drugs, as it creates small pores or holes in cancer cell membranes. This could also help chemotherapy drugs penetrate more efficiently. The results were also based on the experiments on mice, which combined melittin with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel, which significantly reduced tumor growth. “This is an incredibly exciting observation. Melittin interferes with signaling pathways within breast cancer cells to reduce cell replication. It’s another example of how compounds in nature can be harnessed to treat human diseases," said Western Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Peter Klinken.Bees And MedicineThe use of bees and bee products is not new to the mankind. In fact, for centuries human have used it including venom too for medicinal purposes. However, this study could be one of the first that compares the venom's effect across different subtypes of breast cancer, including hormone receptor-positive, HER2-encriched, and triple-negative cancers. Another point to note was that while bumblebee venom too was tested, it did not destroy cancer cells even at high doss, as it did not contain melittin.
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