Study Finds Honeybee Venom Induces Cell Death in Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells
The honeybee has provided us with numerous medicinal products like honey and bee propolis for thousands of years.
Now, for the first time, researchers have investigated the effect of honeybee venom along with melittin (the active component of venom which creates the painful sensation of a bee’s sting) on a range of breast cancers, including two of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat types (triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer).
Dr. Ciara Duffy, who led the research team in Perth, Australia, noted, “The venom was extremely potent. We found that melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes within 60 minutes.”
It was also discovered that melittin prevents the activation of receptors for growth factors in the cells’ membrane. One of the reasons that HER2-enriched cancer cells and some triple-negative breast cancers grow uncontrollably is that they have large numbers of these receptors.
The scientists at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research also studied bumblebee venom but those studies did not result in killing the cancer cells. This could be due to the fact that bumblebee venom contains no melittin.
To examine the mechanism and kinetics of cell death, TNBC cells were treated with the IC50 of either honeybee venom or melittin for 18 and 24 hours and processed by a cleaved caspase-3 assay to quantify apoptotic cell death. Immunoblotting confirmed the induction of cleaved caspase-3 in SUM159 cells, with melittin alone inducing a higher level of apoptosis than honeybee venom at both 18 and 24 hours post treatment (see graphic below from the study).
The study states “Both honeybee venom and melittin have demonstrated antitumoral effects in melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, glioblastoma, leukemia, ovarian, cervical, and pancreatic cancers, with higher cytotoxic potency in cancer cells compared to nontransformed cells. Melittin nanoparticles have been used to suppress liver metastasis through the immunomodulation of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. Additive and synergistic anticancer effects have been reported between honeybee venom and other therapeutic modalities, including with cisplatin in cervical and laryngeal malignancies, and with docetaxel in lung cancer cells. Similar interactions have been demonstrated between melittin and plasma-treated phosphate-buffered saline in MCF7 breast cancer and melanoma cells. Honeybee venom and melittin also induced apoptosis in MCF7 cells, and reduced cell viability and migration in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Honeybee venom reduced metastases of breast cancer to the lung, inhibited tumor growth, and prolonged survival in mice with spontaneous mammary carcinoma tumors. The majority of the antineoplastic activity of honeybee venom has been attributed to melittin through inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis in breast cancer, MAPK in melanoma, JAK2/STAT3 in ovarian cancer, and NFκB signaling pathways in lung carcinoma cells.”
