Honeybee venom kills aggressive and resistant breast cancer cells

Good news! This is very impressive, almost like a miracle! Cancer is history (soon)!

"Researchers in Australia found that venom from honeybees rapidly destroyed breast cancer cells. The venom proved highly effective at reducing tumor growth even for the most aggressive and hard-to-treat forms of breast cancer. What’s more, compounds present in the venom enhanced the success of chemotherapy. ...

Experiments on mice showed that at specific concentrations, the bee venom killed 100% of triple-negative breast cancer cells, a kind of breast cancer that does not have any of the typical receptors commonly found in other forms of cancer. As such, it can be extremely difficult to treat.

The cancer cells were destroyed within 60 minutes with minimal effects on normal cells. ...
A compound called melittin seems to be responsible for the cancer-killing effect of the venom. Melittin breaks through the plasma membrane of cancer cells, forming holes or pores that lead to the cells’ death.
Research also showed that melittin disrupts the main messaging pathways that cancer cells use to communicate, grow, and replicate. ...
The researchers also wanted to see what happened when melittin interacted with conventional chemotherapy drugs, such as docetaxel. Remarkably, the pores and holes drilled by the bee venom compound allowed the chemotherapy to easily penetrate the cancerous cells, substantially reducing tumour growth in mice. ...
Fortunately, melittin can be synthesized ..."

From the abstract:

"Despite decades of study, the molecular mechanisms and selectivity of the biomolecular components of honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom as anticancer agents remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that honeybee venom and its major component melittin potently induce cell death, particularly in the aggressive triple-negative and HER2-enriched breast cancer subtypes. Honeybee venom and melittin suppress the activation of EGFR and HER2 by interfering with the phosphorylation of these receptors in the plasma membrane of breast carcinoma cells. Mutational studies reveal that a positively charged C-terminal melittin sequence mediates plasma membrane interaction and anticancer activity. Engineering of an RGD motif further enhances targeting of melittin to malignant cells with minimal toxicity to normal cells. Lastly, administration of melittin enhances the effect of docetaxel in suppressing breast tumor growth in an allograft model. Our work unveils a molecular mechanism underpinning the anticancer selectivity of melittin, and outlines treatment strategies to target aggressive breast cancers."

Honeybee venom kills aggressive and resistant breast cancer cells A compound found in bee venom destroyed 100% of the hardest-to-kill breast cancer cells in under 60 minutes.

Honeybee venom and melittin suppress growth factor receptor activation in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast cancer