The Cancer Diseases and Potentiality of Bee venom Toward Therapeutic Tools Antitumor

Mamdouh Ibrahim Nassar^1* & Emad Elzayat, M.²

¹Faculty of Science, Biology-Entomology Department, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
²Faculty of Science, Zoology Department, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

Dr. Mamdouh Ibrahim Nassar, Assiut Lab, Faculty of Science, Biology-Entomology Department, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Keywords: Cancer Diseases; Bee Venom; Apis Mellifera; Antitumor; Antiproliferative; Antibacterial; Cytotoxic Activities

Abstract

Cancer is a serious health problem and statistically, there are approximately 32.6 million cancer patients around the world. This Review is focusing on cytotoxic and antitumor activities of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) venom. It is no doubt that cancer is one of the primary causes of death in the world. Complications connected with the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy in cancer treatment might lower the effectiveness of such medication. So, using naturalistic yields in cancer treatment has become an important current topic. Therefore Bee venom (BV) has been suggested as an Apitherapy tool to be considered for various diseases including cancer. The bee venom has been found to have anticancer activities in different cancer cell lines involving breast, liver and prostate. However, the mechanisms action of BV and its toxicity on tumorigenic and nontumorigenic cells are poorly understood. BV is highly toxic to cancer cell lines and its mechanism action causes a cleavage of genomic DNA and inhibition of cell migration, indicating induction of apoptosis. Immunohistochemistry studies demonstrated that BV decreased the expression of Bcl-2 and P16. BV composed of many complex substances such as peptides (melittin, apamin, secapin, tertiapin, adolapin, and mast cell degranulating peptide). Melittin links to some tumor cells at a higher affinity than to healthy cells; anti- metastatic anti-invasive, and anti-angiogenesis impact which might earn future clinical research on its anti-tumor characteristics and therapeutic effects when used as a cancer diseases treatment.

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