Venom from honeybees has been found to rapidly kill aggressive and hard-to-treat breast cancer cells, according to potentially ground-breaking new Australian research.
Dr Duffy said
We found that the venom from honeybees is remarkably effective in killing some of these really aggressive breast cancer cells at concentrations which aren’t as damaging to normal cells
The research showed a specific concentration of the venom killed 100 per cent of triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells within 60 minutes, while having minimal effects on normal cells.
The bees were put to sleep with carbon dioxide and kept on ice before the venom was extracted and injected into the tumours.
She said a component of the venom called melittin is what had the killing effect.
The researchers reproduced the melittin synthetically and found it mirrored the majority of the anti-cancer effects of the honeybee venom.
Dr Duffy said
What melittin does is it actually enters the surface, or the plasma membrane and forms holes or pores and it just causes the cell to die
The researchers also discovered within 20 minutes the melittin had another powerful effect. She said
We found it was interfering with the main messaging or cancer-signalling pathways that are fundamental for the growth and replication of cancer cells
It effectively shut down the signalling pathways for the reproduction of triple-negative and HER2 cancer cells.
Dr Duffy also examined the effect of melittin used in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs, such as docetaxel.
She found the holes in breast cancer membranes caused by the melittin allowed the chemotherapy to enter the cell and worked extremely efficiently in reducing tumour growth in mice.
src - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-01/new-aus-research-finds-honey-bee-venom-kills-breast-cancer-cells/12618064
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