Orsolic (2009) investigated the possible growth-inhibiting effects of bee venom applied alone or in combination with a cytotoxic drug, bleomycin, on HeLa and V79 cells in vitro. The adjuvant treatment caused a dose-dependent decrease in cell survival due to DNA damage, suggesting that BV might find a therapeutic this website use in enhancing cytotoxicity of the antitumor agent bleomycin.

Another mechanism of the melittin anti-tumor action was recently proposed. Melittin inhibited the enzymatic activity of matrix metalloproteinase-9 secreted by PMA-induced Caki-1 (renal carcinoma) cells. MMP-9 plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells, and melittin inhibited the levels of phospho-ERK and phospho-JNK, affecting the levels of AP-1 and NF-κB (nuclear factor-κB), which, in turn, led to suppression of MMP-9 expression (Park et al., 2010). A similar study was conducted to assess the expression and activity of MMP-9 and the possible affected signaling pathway in PMA-induced MCF-7 cells treated with bee venom.

Melittin suppressed MMP-9 activity and PI3K inhibitor expression, by inhibition of NF-κB via p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways, which inhibited cell invasion and migration (Cho et al., 2009). These results indicate that bee venom can be a potential anti-metastatic and anti-invasive agent. Some recent studies have shown the anti-cancer potential of melittin using nanocarriers to deliver this cytolytic peptide specifically to tumor cells. Soman et al. (2009) incorporated the nonspecific peptide melittin into the outer lipid monolayer of a perfluorocarbon nanoparticle. Results revealed a dramatic reduction of tumor growth without any apparent signs of toxicity in mice. The findings of these studies represent

PRKD3 an innovative molecular design for chemotherapy with broad-spectrum cytolytic peptides for the treatment of cancer. New peptides have been purified from bee venom and tested in tumor cells, exhibiting promising activities in the treatment of cancer. Some of these interesting molecules are the lasioglossins isolated from the venom of the eusocial bee Lasioglossum laticeps, which exhibited potent anti-microbial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, low hemolytic and mast cell degranulation activity, and a potency to kill various cancer cells in vitro ( Cerovský et al., 2009). This study, published by Cerovský et al. (2009), is just the first report about the antitumoral and anti-microbial potential of the lasioglossins, indicating that there is still a long way before the effects of these molecules upon tumor cells can be fully elucidated. Besides the antitumoral effect of their venoms, bees also have other tools that can be used to fight cancer, such as propolis. Propolis is a resinous material and one of the products of honeybees.