Study: Bee venom kills aggressive breast cancer cells
Sept 1, 2020 By Nancy Clanton
FTA
The European honeybee has been the source of honey and venom used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years.
A new study out of Australia suggests the venom from honeybees and bumblebees also can fight breast cancer — and win.
Ciara Duffy, from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and the University of Western Australia, used the venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Western Australia, Ireland and England to test the effect of the venom on the clinical subtypes of breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer, which has limited treatment options.
“Understanding the molecular basis and specificity of bee venom against cancer cells is key for developing and optimizing novel effective therapeutics from a natural product that is widely available and cost-effective to produce in many communities around the world,” Duffy wrote in the study, published in npj Precision Oncology.
Duffy’s results showed honeybee venom rapidly destroyed triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells.