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Venom from honeybees found to kill aggres- Most Popular this week
sive breast cancer cells
HEALTH & MEDICINE

Date: September 2, 2020 Stroke Warning Signs Often Occur

Hours Or Days Before Attack
Source: Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research
Researchers Discover
Summary: Honeybee venom induces cancer cell death in hard to treat a Specific Brain Circuit
triple-negative breast cancer with minimal effect on healthy Damaged by Social
cells, new research finds. Isolation During
Childhood

Share: Venom from Honeybees Found to

Kill Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells

FULL STORY MIND & BRAIN

Got Fatigue? Study

Further Pinpoints
Using the venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Brain Regions That
Perth Western Australia, Ireland and England, Dr Ciara May Control It

Duffy from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research Loss of Smell and Taste Validated
as COVID-19 Symptoms in Patients
and The University of Western Australia, tested the effect of With High Recovery Rate
the venom on the clinical subtypes of breast cancer, includ-
Study Explains Potential Causes for
ing triple-negative breast cancer, which has limited treat- 'Happy Hypoxia' Condition in
COVID-19 Patients
ment options.
LIVING & WELL
Results published in the journal npj Precision Oncology revealed that honey- Boy or Girl? It's in the Father's
bee venom rapidly destroyed triple-negative breast cancer and HER2- Genes
enriched breast cancer cells.
When You're Smiling,
Dr Duffy said the aim of the research was to investigate the anti-cancer the Whole World
Really Does Smile
properties of honeybee venom, and a component compound, melittin, on dif-
With You
ferent types of breast cancer cells.
The 'Gold' in Breast Milk
"No-one had previously compared the effects of honeybee venom or melittin
across all of the different subtypes of breast cancer and normal cells. Strange & Offbeat
"We tested honeybee venom on normal breast cells, and cells from the clini-
cal subtypes of breast cancer: hormone receptor positive, HER2-enriched, HEALTH & MEDICINE
and triple-negative breast cancer. A 400-Year-Old Chamois Will Serve
as a Model for Research on Ice
"We tested a very small, positively charged peptide in honeybee venom
Mummies

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Venom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells -- Sci... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901093412.htm

called melittin, which we could reproduce synthetically, and found that the Venom from Honeybees Found to
synthetic product mirrored the majority of the anti-cancer effects of honey- Kill Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells
bee venom," Dr Duffy said. Insect Shows Promise as a Good,
Sustainable Food Source
"We found both honeybee venom and melittin significantly, selectively and
rapidly reduced the viability of triple-negative breast cancer and HER2- MIND & BRAIN
enriched breast cancer cells. New Electronic Skin Can React to
Pain Like Human Skin
"The venom was extremely potent," Dr Duffy said.
Sleep Duration, Efficiency and
A specific concentration of honeybee venom can induce 100% cancer cell
Structure Change in Space
death, while having minimal effects on normal cells.
How 'Swapping Bodies' With a
"We found that melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes Friend Changes Our Sense of Self
within 60 minutes."
LIVING & WELL
Melittin in honeybee venom also had another remarkable effect; within 20
Using a Public Restroom? Mask Up!
minutes, melittin was able to substantially reduce the chemical messages of
cancer cells that are essential to cancer cell growth and cell division. Evolutionary Theory of Economic
Decisions
"We looked at how honeybee venom and melittin affect the cancer signalling
pathways, the chemical messages that are fundamental for cancer cell 'Drawn-on-Skin' Electronics Offer
Breakthrough in Wearable Monitors
growth and reproduction, and we found that very quickly these signalling
pathways were shut down.

"Melittin modulated the signalling in breast cancer cells by suppressing the

activation of the receptor that is commonly overexpressed in triple-negative
breast cancer, the epidermal growth factor receptor, and it suppressed the
activation of HER2 which is over-expressed in HER2-enriched breast can-
cer," she said.

Western Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken said "This is an

incredibly exciting observation that melittin, a major component of honeybee
venom, can suppress the growth of deadly breast cancer cells, particularly
triple-negative breast cancer.

"Significantly, this study demonstrates how melittin interferes with signalling

pathways within breast cancer cells to reduce cell replication. It provides an-
other wonderful example of where compounds in nature can be used to treat
human diseases," he said.

Dr Duffy also tested to see if melittin could be used with existing chemother-
apy drugs as it forms pores, or holes, in breast cancer cell membranes, po-
tentially enabling the entry of other treatments into the cancer cell to en-
hance cell death.

"We found that melittin can be used with small molecules or chemothera-
pies, such as docetaxel, to treat highly-aggressive types of breast cancer.
The combination of melittin and docetaxel was extremely efficient in reduc-
ing tumour growth in mice."

Dr Duffy's research was conducted as part of her PhD undertaken at Perth's

Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research at the Cancer Epigenetics labo-
ratory overseen by A/Prof. Pilar Blancafort. "I began with collecting Perth
honeybee venom. Perth bees are some of the healthiest in the world.

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Venom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells -- Sci... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901093412.htm

"The bees were put to sleep with carbon dioxide and kept on ice before the
venom barb was pulled out from the abdomen of the bee and the venom ex-
tracted by careful dissection," she said.

While there are 20,000 species of bees, Dr Duffy wanted to compare the ef-
fects of Perth honeybee venom to other honeybee populations in Ireland and
England, as well as to the venom of bumblebees.

"I found that the European honeybee in Australia, Ireland and England pro-
duced almost identical effects in breast cancer compared to normal cells.
However, bumblebee venom was unable to induce cell death even at very
high concentrations.

One of the first reports of the effects of bee venom was published in Nature
in 1950, where the venom reduced the growth of tumours in plants.
However, Dr Duffy said it was only in the past two decades that interest grew
substantially into the effects of honeybee venom on different cancers.

In the future, studies will be required to formally assess the optimum method
of delivery of melittin, as well as toxicities and maximum tolerated doses.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Note:

Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Ciara Duffy, Anabel Sorolla, Edina Wang, Emily Golden, Eleanor

Woodward, Kathleen Davern, Diwei Ho, Elizabeth Johnstone, Kevin
Pfleger, Andrew Redfern, K. Swaminathan Iyer, Boris Baer, Pilar
Blancafort. Honeybee venom and melittin suppress growth factor
receptor activation in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast
cancer. npj Precision Oncology, 2020; 4 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41698-020-00129-0

Cite This Page:

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to kill aggressive breast cancer cells." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2
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